The Amazing Pokemon Race
by Maniac536
Summary: What would happen if The Pokémon Company decided to host a Pokémon Themed reality show in our world? In this Five Part series we follow six teams, comprised of trainers inspired by some of the best Pokémon players as they travel across the real world trying to become the very best like no one ever was. Only one team can win. Who will it be? New episodes will release every week!
1. Episode 1

" **The Amazing Pokémon Race"**

By Joseph "Maniac" Cirillo III

 **Episode 1**

 _You are about to read the story of a Pokémon-themed reality game show that could take place in the real world._ _ **The entire story is a work of parody protected under the First Amendment and all events are entirely fictional.**_ _In several cases, the names of famous people or technology involved with Nintendo or The Pokémon Company may be used._

Six teams, with two members in each team, anxiously stood in front of the building housing the hallowed offices of The Pokémon Company International in Japan. It is a beautiful spring morning, the sun is shining brightly, the birds chirp melodically in the background, and all of the teams are excited to begin their real world Pokémon journey.

A giant stage was set up in front of the office building. In the middle of the stage was a podium emblazoned with the logo of a Pokéball. Two very large banners of Mewtwo's Mega Evolutions graced the stage as well. A giant banner of Mega Mewtwo X hung on the left of the podium from at least twenty feet above the stage, and an identically sized banner emblazed with Mega Mewtwo Y hung on the right. As the cameras started to roll an orchestral rendition of a Pokémon battle theme played in the background and a tall man walked onto the stage. The man stepped behind the podium in front of the twelve contestants and introduced himself.

"Hi, I'm Bill from Nintendo," he began. "Welcome to _The Great Pokémon Journey_! All twelve of you have been chosen from all across the world to take part in this international competition to be the very best like no one ever was. Each of you have been paired up from our extensive search criteria. While your reasons for being here may be different, there is no question you are all considered some of the biggest Pokémon superfans in the world. Pokefandom reaches across generations and nationalities, and so does this competition."

A sassy supermodel dressed as a Pokémon Professor walked next to Bill with a stack of boxes.

"Before we get started we need to make sure all of you Pokémon Trainers are properly equipped," Bill continued his speech to the teams. "Every Pokémon Trainer going out on their Pokémon Journey never goes anywhere without their trusty Pokédex at their side, do they?"

The teams nodded in agreement as Bill took one of the boxes from the Pokémon Professor's hand and started to open it.

"That's why each one of you will be issued your own Pokédex," and as Bill said that he pulled out the contents of one of the boxes, "…in the form of the New Nintendo 3DS XL!"

The teams applauded again as Bill and the Pokémon Professor walked over to the first team.

Bill addressed the first team which was made up of a boy and girl who looked to be in their late teens, "Each team on this journey represents a specific Pokémon game generation. You are Team One, consisted of Trainers Red and Blue. While neither of you have met before today, you are two of the best YouTube personalities on the internet, with each of your channels focused on Pokémon history and lore. Combined, your videos have millions of views." Bill passed them each a New 3DS XL, and shook each of their hands. "Good luck to both of you."

Bill walked over to the next team, another teenage boy and girl team, and handed them their essential equipment.

"Team Two, consisted of Trainers Gold and Silver. You are two of the longest playing competitive Pokémon players, and have been professional rivals for quite some time. Well, now you'll have to put your rivalry aside to win this competition. I wish both of you luck."

Team Three eagerly anticipated Bill's address as he walked over to them. They looked to be among the oldest members of the group, they were comprised of a man and woman in their late twenties who had known each other for years.

"Team Three, consisted of Trainers Ruby and Sapphire. Ironically enough we chose those names for you because that happens to be your birthstones. You both make a successful series of hilarious Pokémon videos online, comprised of satirical redubs of the _Pokémon: The Animated Series_. Don't worry, we didn't call you here to issue a DMCA,"

The members of Team Three breathed out a sigh of relief as Bill continued, "We are here to congratulate you and wish you both the best of luck." With that, Bill handed them the latest Nintendo handhelds and continued to the next team.

The Pokémon Professor and Bill moved over to Team Four, who looked to be identical twin sisters, and handed each sister their new handhelds.

"Team Four, Trainers Diamond and Pearl, the only all-female team in this competition. You two have been battling each other in games of _Pokémon_ since you both were children, and I think you lost count some time ago who has won the most battles." As he handed them each a New 3DS XL he added, "Good luck to both of you"

Team Five was a smiling couple in their early twenties. Everyone could clearly notice the two were holding each other's hands tightly as Bill walked over to them. "Team Five consists of Trainers Black and White, a couple who famously found each other online while sharing their mutual love of Pokémon. I saw your proposal video online, and I thought it was really cute when Black asked White to marry him. I know your intention is to get married after this competition ends, and I want to wish you both the best of luck, not just with this competition but with your future lives together."

Finally Bill and the Pokémon Professor walked over to the last team, comprised of a boy and girl that were no older than ten. "Last but not least is Team Six, and it consists of Trainers X and Y, proof that Pokémon fandom reaches all ages. You two are the youngest contestants going on this journey and you should be proud of yourselves for making it here. While you two may technically be the least experienced out of all the other teams, you both seem to have an uncanny natural skill for the game. We were tremendously impressed by your performances during last season's _Pokémon X & Y_ championships, where you both became the best competitors in our Juniors Division. Don't ever let your rivals forget, Ash was only ten when he started on his Pokémon journey too."

Bill handed the final team their digital devices and as the Pokémon Professor walked off, Bill walked back to his podium to address all the teams directly, "Be good to these devices as you will need them to keep you up to date on your objectives and any new contest challenges that are issued while you're on your Pokémon Journey. Also, just like with a real Pokédex, each one is encoded with your Trainer identifications. Don't lose them or you may end up forfeiting the contest. On top of that, as a special bonus for being a part of this competition, your New Nintendo 3DS XLs include a digital copy of _Pokémon Omega Ruby_ or _Pokémon Alpha Sapphire_! Part of Pokémon's _Gotta Catch 'Em All_ philosophy is to trade your Pokémon with friends and allies, so we're issuing one game to each team member, so don't forget to trade!"

The crowd cheered and clapped in unison just as Bill dropped a bombshell on them and said, "But just before all of you get comfortable, we're going to be having an elimination challenge right here, and right now."

All twelve contestants suddenly became very anxious, none of them had any idea that there was going to be an elimination challenge today, and it was obvious they weren't prepared for it.

"The elimination challenge," began Bill, "will be in the form of a giant-scale Pokémon Battle!"

The crowd cheered and whistled, as the two Mega Mewtwo banners behind Bill fell to the ground to reveal two enormous high definition screens. However, the images on the giant screens were not images from any of the main Pokémon titles, but images from their downloadable puzzle game, _Pokémon Battle Trozai_.

Bill explained the rules of the elimination competition, "We just released _Pokémon Shuffle_ for people to download free of charge on the Nintendo eShop, but we thought that for you guys, we would do something a little bit more challenging, so we're going to have you play something a little tougher, the downloadable title _Pokémon Battle Trozai_ for the Nintendo 3DS. While the mechanics of _Shuffle_ are very similar to _Trozai_ , this game doesn't give you the time to plan out your strategies."

Then Bill dropped a huge revelation on the contestants, "This will not be just some simple two-player puzzle battle. We are going to set the clock for exactly five minutes and you are all going to complete as many puzzles as you can in the time allotted to you. When five minutes are up, we are going to add up the total score from all the puzzles each of you are able to complete in that time. Now, here's the tricky part, none of you will be able to go back and redo a puzzle once you've completed it. Does everyone understand?"

The teams nodded in compliance and Bill continued with his instructions, "Each of you will pick one player from your team to compete in this challenge. Choose wisely as you will be putting the future of your team in their hands. We will be giving each one of you similar puzzle boards, and whoever can achieve the five highest scores within the time limit will continue with their _Pokémon Journey_. Unfortunately, the person who places last will be packing up their bags and going home with their teammate."

The teams started to look at each other as they tried to decide who would be participating in this competition.

Red looked at Blue and said, "I've never even played any of the games in the _Pokémon Trozai_ series, have you played them?"

Team Two started to do a game of _Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock_ to decide who would be competing in the challenge.

Diamond said to Pearl, "You go, sis, you're better at this game than I am."

Ruby looked at Sapphire and said, "I'm going, I love the _Trozai_ series."

Trainers X and Y both just looked at each other blankly, unsure of what they could do. While both of them had played puzzle games in the past on their SmartPhones, neither one of them had played a _Pokémon Trozai_ game before.

"Have you picked who will participate in this challenge?" asked Bill.

After some deliberation, Trainers Blue, X, Silver, Pearl, White and Ruby stood forward. They pulled out their New Nintendo 3DS XL units and fired them up for the first time. Nintendo had included a copy of _Pokémon Battle Trozai_ on each of them, right next to their copies of _Pokémon Omega Ruby_ and _Pokémon Alpha Sapphire,_ so it didn't take long for any of them to boot up their games.

When the games booted up, it was clear that no save data had been stored in any of the systems, and each Trainer was essentially starting from scratch. Before the buzzer sounded to start the competition, X tugged on the sleeve of one of the show's producers to ask him how to play the game, as he had never played it before.

After the producer explained to X how to play the game, X replied, "Oh, so it's just like _Bejeweled_ , got it."

All of the Trainers were now ready to start playing, and Bill started the countdown. A crowd of spectators started to form in front of the two big screens in anticipation for the start of the elimination competition.

"Five, four, three…two," and with a blast of confetti Bill shouted out the final number, "one!"

The sound of the confetti being blasted out of the stage's air cannons was deafening, but all of the trainers started to play immediately.

The spectators below the stage could see each competitor's progress as they competed level after level.

Trainer X, having never played the game before, took to it very well. While his score lagged behind in the first puzzle, once he realized that he could do more damage to Pokémon if he created combos using Pokémon of a type the puzzle was weak against, his score started to improve.

As White started to beat puzzle after puzzle she told the cameraman, "I've been playing the _Pokémon Trozai_ games since it first appeared on the DS a few years ago. I'm not going to be the one who's getting eliminated today."

Ruby wasn't slouching either. After completing his third puzzle he told the cameraman, "I haven't played this game in quite a while. I played the original _Pokémon Trozai_ game a few years ago and all my skills are coming back to me. I am totally going to win this."

Each competitor's teammate cheered them on in the background. Meanwhile, Blue was doing pretty well. She was able to complete the puzzles faster than any of the other trainers. As she completed a puzzle, she said to the camera, "I actually had played this game quite a lot on the plane ride over here, so I already know some of the best strategies for completing the puzzles quickly with a decent score." With that, she finished yet another puzzle.

As the other Trainers pushed forward, Pearl started to fall behind. While she had been a better player than her sister, neither one of them had played _Pokémon Trozai_ in years. The reason why she had always played the game better than her sister was that Pearl always took a bit longer to see what larger combos she could make, instead of going for smaller combos faster. While that meant she could get a higher score per puzzle than the other trainers, she wasn't completing the puzzles as quickly as the others were. She didn't realize it, but Pearl's score was close to being overtaken by X's. Time was no longer on their side, as each trainer had less than one minute left to post the best total score they possibly could.

The buzzer sounded, and all of the trainer's scores were locked in. An air of silence fell over the crowd as the software engineers tallied up the final scores from each team. As the judges gave each other nods they signaled to the producer that they had reached a conclusion by giving him a thumbs up gesture. After that, they put the results in a high quality foil envelope and passed it to the producer.

The teams closed up their 3DS systems and walked back over to be with their teammates. High fives and hugs were had all around as they all waited anxiously for the results of the elimination contest to be read out.

A supermodel dressed as Officer Jenny walked over to Bill with an envelope. As he prepared to open it he said, "We have the results of the elimination contest right here. Let me remind all of you right now that the team that places in last will be going home."

Bill ripped open the envelope and read out the results, "In first place…is Team Five! Congratulations. For winning first place, you each will receive a brand-new big screen HDTV and the all new Nintendo Wii U system!"

Upon hearing this news, Black and White gave each other a long embrace. The other teams shyly looked away from their public display of affection.

"In second place, is Team One!"

Upon hearing that news, Red and Blue high fived each other.

Bill looked over at Team One and said, "For Winning second place, you've each won a brand new Wii U."

Red shouted, "Sweet!" at Bill, Blue nodded in agreement.

"In third place…is Team Three! For coming in third place, you'll each be getting a hundred dollar gift card, good for anything you would want to buy on the Nintendo eShop."

Ruby and Sapphire looked pleased.

"In fourth place…is Team Two! You will each receive a fifty dollar gift card for the Nintendo eShop."

The members of Team Two shook hands. While they both wished they could have placed higher, they were happy they were staying in the competition. As they walked over to join the other winning teams, the two teams who hadn't been placed yet stood together.

"We now come to the end of the elimination contest. The team who places fifth will not receive a prize but they will be allowed to continue with this competition, the team who places in sixth will be going home right now."

Teams Four and Six held their collective breath as they hoped to win the fifth spot.

"In fifth place…is Team Six!"

Team Six jumped in glee, Team Four bowed their heads in defeat.

Bill walked over to the members of Team Four and directly addressed them, "I'm afraid that means that you have been eliminated. Thank you so much for participating, girls, but this is the end of your Pokémon Journey. I wish you both the best."

Bill shook their hands and Diamond and Pearl walked off to talk to the cameras as the other teams applauded them for their efforts.

Pearl was very upset, so Diamond spoke first, "It is disappointing we were eliminated so soon."

Pearl took a deep breath and said, "I agree, I think we had a lot we could have brought to this competition if we were able to stay in longer."

One of the show's producers whispered something in Diamond's ear as Pearl continued to speak to the camera. Once Pearl finished talking, Diamond said, "Oh that's nice, they're telling us we could keep all of our prizes, including the 3DS systems and the games, and we will be flying home first class."

The twin sisters walked out of the confession booth and headed back to their hotel room to go pack their bags. As Team Four walked away, the remaining five teams started to relax a bit, and they congratulated each other on a job well done.

"I want to say congratulations to all of you for doing well in that competition. It's clear that we chose the right people to take this amazing journey. All of you should rest up, because your Pokémon Journey continues right here tomorrow!"

 _And that is the end of the first of our five episode series! We've got one heck of a season in store for our viewers. Friendships will be tested, alliances will be formed and broken, and you never know, maybe love will be in the air. To everyone watching this show at home, I'm Bill from Nintendo, see you next time on The Great Pokémon Journey._


	2. Episode 2

**Episode 2**

 _You are about to read the story of a Pokémon-themed reality game show that could take place in the real world._ _ **The entire story is a work of parody protected under the First Amendment and all events are entirely fictional.**_ _In several cases, the names of famous people or technology involved with Nintendo or The Pokémon Company may be used._

Trainers Black and White cuddled in bed together as the sun started to rise through the window of their hotel room. Since Black had asked White to marry him they had been engaged for nearly a year, but without the funds to afford a wedding they were unable to tie the knot just yet. They hoped amongst hope that the prize money they won in this competition would be able to give them the wedding of their dreams. In unison their New Nintendo 3DS XLs began to pulse a blue light, indicating they just received new messages. Black got out of bed to check their messages but decided to let White sleep a little longer.

Trainer X had a small hotel room all to himself. He was used to getting up early each morning to go to school or watch weekend cartoons, and he was able to get up without much exhaustion. As he got dressed in his trainer gear, the light on his Pokédex began to pulse. After he finished getting dressed, he noticed the light blinking on his Nintendo handheld. Assuming it was time to start for the day, he quickly ran down the hall to knock on Trainer Y's door so they could get going. Y was awake, but she was taking longer to get ready. After Y finished getting dressed, they both grabbed their equipment and headed out.

Trainers Red and Blue also opted for different hotel rooms, and since it turned out that both were equally as competitive, they both woke up and got dressed at the exact same time. As they each left their hotel rooms to get the other, they found themselves nearly colliding with each other in the hotel hallway on their way to check on each other. Once they collected their bearings, they headed out together.

Gold and Silver had also opted for separate rooms, but the night before, they ended up sharing Silver's room. Gold had brought his Nintendo 64 over to Japan with him along with his copy of _Pokémon Stadium 2_ so he could stay sharp during downtime. When Silver saw what Gold had brought with him, she immediately challenged him to a battle. One battle then turned into a best of three, then a best of five, and by the time both of them fell asleep neither one of them could remember who had won the most games. Silver awoke to find her New 3DS XL was lighting up, and as she went to check her messages, found Gold asleep on her floor with a Nintendo 64 controller still in his hand. She nudged him awake with her foot and told him to wake up. Gold packed up his Nintendo 64 as quickly as he could, and they rushed downstairs together.

Trainers Ruby and Sapphire decided to share a hotel room but they slept in separate beds. While they had been friends for a long time, and even dated for a short period, they decided before the competition started to keep their relationship entirely professional. Both of them had slept through the sound of their alarms and didn't get up until two of the show's stagehands started knocking loudly on their hotel door. They woke up groggily, got dressed, and headed downstairs as quickly as they could. They would be the final team to arrive on set.

All five teams arrived at the same location they had been the previous day, the home of The Pokémon Company International. The stage was set as it was the day before, with giant banners of Mega Mewtwo X and Mega Mewtwo Y flanking each side of the main podium. However, something had been added to the set from the night before. Five smaller podiums were set up in front of the main stage, and each one had a name from the five remaining teams written on it, with a blank space above each name. As they walked into the set, each trainer was directed by a stagehand to stand behind the specific podium bearing their team's name. Once everyone was situated behind their respective podiums, Bill from Nintendo took to the stage, ready to give instructions to the remaining five teams.

An orchestral version of _Pokémon's_ battle theme started to play through the set's speakers as Bill started to speak.

"Welcome back, Trainers," began Bill, "Welcome to Day Two of _The Great Pokemon Journey!"_

The five remaining teams applauded.

Bill looked around at all of the remaining trainers and said, "It's good to see all of you this morning. Before we get all of you started on your Pokémon Journey, we would like to take this opportunity to present you all with a special immunity challenge! Among you are the most knowledgeable _Pokémon_ fans in the world, and we would love to take this opportunity to test your _Pokémon_ knowledge. I will ask a series of ten questions related to any of the _Pokémon_ video games, movies, TV series, or manga. After I ask the question, the first team to buzz in with a correct answer will receive one point. After all the questions have been asked, the team with the most points will be declared the winner! Don't worry, no one will be eliminated at the end of this challenge, but the winning team will receive immunity from today's challenge and a special prize! Good luck to all of you."

Bill pulled out his trivia cards and began with his first question, "First question. What was the first _Pokémon_ game released on the Nintendo 64 in North America?"

Team One buzzed in first. Bill turned to Team One and said, "Team One, what is your answer?"

Trainer Red responded, " _Pokémon Stadium_."

Bill shook his head and said, "I'm sorry but that is incorrect. _Pokémon Stadium_ did launch first in Japan, but the original version of that game never came to North America, and we need the first North American Pokémon N64 game."

Team Two buzzed in.

Bill turned and asked, "Team Two, what is your answer?"

Gold answered, " _Pokémon Snap_."

Bill nodded and said, "Correct. Next question. Who is the creator of _Pokémon_?"

Team Three buzzed in first. Bill turned to the team and asked, "Team Three, what is your answer?"

Ruby quickly answered, "Satoshi Tajeri."

Bill nodded and said, "Correct. Next question. What does the word Pokémon stand for?"

Team One buzzed in first. Bill turned to Team One and said, "Team One, what is your answer?"

Blue responded, "Pocket Monsters."

Bill nodded and said, "Correct. Next question. What type attack is super effective against Fire type Pokémon?"

Team Two buzzed in first. Bill turned to the two and said, "Team Two, what is your answer?"

Gold answered, "Water."

Bill nodded and said, "Correct. Next question. Who was the writer for the manga series _Pokémon: The Electric Tale of Pikachu_?"

This was a more obscure question, and many of the teams did not know the answer. However, Trainer Black had watched a review of that particular book online a few weeks earlier and he still remembered who wrote it. Team Five buzzed in.

Bill turned to Team Five and said, "Team Five, what is your answer?"

Black responded, "Toshihiro Ono."

Bill nodded and said, "Correct. Next question. Who is the leader of Team Rocket?"

Team One buzzed in first. Bill turned to them and said, "Team One, what is your answer?"

Trainer Red responded, "Giovanni."

Bill nodded and said, "Correct. Next question. What is the name of the postgame episode included after defeating the Pokémon League Champion in _Pokémon Omega Ruby_ and _Pokémon Alpha Sapphire_?"

Team Six buzzed in first. Bill turned to them, and said, "Team Six, what is your answer?"

Trainer X answered, "The Delta Episode."

Bill nodded and said, "Correct. Next question. What type attack is super effective against Normal type Pokémon?"

Team Three buzzed in first. Bill turned to the team and said, "Team Three, what is your answer?"

Trainer Sapphire answered, "Fighting type."

Bill nodded and said, "Correct. Next question and this is going to be a controversial one. In the Pokémon animated TV series, how old is Ash Ketchum?"

Team One buzzed in first. Bill turned and asked, "Team One what is your answer?"

Red responded quickly, "Eleven."

Bill shook his head and said, "I'm sorry that is incorrect."

Team Three buzzed in. Bill turned to Team Three and asked, "Team Three, what is your response?"

Ruby responded, "He's probably twenty by now."

Bill shook his head again and said, "I'm sorry but that is incorrect. Anyone else have the answer?"

Team Six buzzed in. Bill turned to Team Two and asked, "Team Six, what is your answer?"

Trainer Y answered, "Ten. He's _always_ ten."

Bill nodded and said, "Correct. As it stands we are in a four way tie for first place, with Team One, Team Two, Team Three and Team Six tied with two points each. If any one of those teams answers this next question correctly, they win the challenge. If Team Five answers correctly, we will have a sudden death round."

All of the team members started to become very anxious at what the final question could be. It was practically anyone's game.

Bill moved turned over his index cards to read what could very well be the last question and said, "Final question. In the _Pokémon_ TV show, what was the name of the Legendary Pokémon that Ash encountered at the end of the very first episode?"

Team Two buzzed in first. Bill turned to Team Two and said, "Team Two, what is your answer?"

Gold looked at Bill very nervously and said, "Ho-oh?"

Bells started to ring out, and confetti began to fall from the top of the stage all over the participants.

Bill stepped away from his podium and walked directly towards the members of Team Two. When he finally made it to their podium he said, "Team Two, you are the winners of the immunity trivia contest. Congratulations."

The teams applauded as the members of Team Two took a little bow.

"Team Two," for winning today's trivia contest you have each won a gift certificate valued at five thousand dollars, which can be used at any Pokémon Center in Japan. You have also earned immunity from today's challenge. Feel free to spend your day off shopping across this great country. You have proven you know your Pokémon trivia. Congratulations!"

Team Two walked away from their podium to go and enjoy their newly earned immunity. The remaining Pokémon Trainers started to shake the fallen confetti from their clothes as Bill started to walk back onto the stage.

Once Bill stood at his podium he began to set the stage for the day's challenge, "In our video games, many of you know Pokémon Centers are an essential stopping point during a Pokémon Journey where you can heal your Pokémon, interact with other trainers, and since the release of _Pokémon X_ and _Pokémon Y_ , it has become an essential place to purchase supplies on your Pokémon Journey. You're here in Japan, the home of Nintendo and The Pokémon Company International. Here, we love _Pokémon_ , so much so that we have Pokémon Center locations all throughout the country!"

Bill then informed the teams what their challenge would be, "In our world, Pokémon Centers are places where people can buy all kinds of Pokémon-themed merchandise and there's one located in the heart of this city. Your objective for today is as follows. Be the first team to reach the Pokémon Center. You can travel by any means available to you to get there but choose your means wisely."

Bill then had to inform the trainers what the stakes were for this challenge and said, "I'm afraid that the last team who makes it to the Pokémon Center will be eliminated from this competition and will not be able to continue on their Pokémon Journey."

The remaining teams were scared of the possibility of elimination, but excited at the prospect for how much fun this challenge was going to be.

"Once again, good luck to all of you! Your Pokémon Journey continues on the count of three. One, two…three!"

A loud buzzer sounded and the teams sprinted off as fireworks started to launch. None of the trainers had been provided a map or general direction for where the city's Pokémon Center store was located prior to Bill's challenge, so it was going to take each of the teams a few minutes to plan out the best strategy with the equipment they had before they could sprint to their ultimate goal.

Trainer Red had been to Japan before for several conventions, and he knew his way around the major cities. Blue had never left the United States before, but she was willing to trust Red's leadership for the time being.

Trainers Ruby and Sapphire wasted no time pulling up the location of the nearest Pokémon Center on their GPS. Ruby said to Sapphire, "There are paved roads all the way from here to our goal. Why don't we just hail a taxi and get that to take us to the nearest Pokémon Center?"

Trainers X and Y were pretty scared and overwhelmed by the challenge that lay before them. This was the first time either of them had been in a major city, and while they would be followed around at all times by the camera crew, they had to decide for themselves the best route to take across Japan.

Ruby and Sapphire made it to a taxi line and were the first team to get some wheels under them as they headed to their destination.

Red looked at Blue and said, "The fastest way to get across Japan is by train, and this country has some of the best trains in the world. Maybe we could find ourselves a subway or an elevated train that could take us across the city?"

Meanwhile, Trainer Y got a great idea as X continued to study his map. Neither one of them could drive, but rush hour had started and the car traffic on the roads were getting to a nearly dead stop.

Trainer Y looked at X and said, "Can you ride a bike?"

Trainer X replied, "Of course I can ride a bike, I'm ten, not six. Why?"

Trainers Red and Blue finally found an entrance to the underground. As they ran into the train station, Blue said to Red, "Take a picture of the train map with your 3DS and I'll buy us some train passes."

After some asking around, the members of Team Six were told that if they wanted, they could rent some bikes for the day and ride them all throughout the city. The rented bikes were GPS tracked, so they could leave them at their destination when they were finished, and other customers would be able to pick them up later. Trainer X paid the day's rental fee for two bikes.

Red and Blue got their train passes and headed down into the city's underground to catch their train. Unfortunately, just as they made it down the stairs, the train that was holding still on the tracks started to sail off, leaving them behind. Team One would need to wait for the next train, until it arrived they were stuck in the station.

The traffic across Japan was just horrible. Even though Ruby and Sapphire were able to get themselves a taxi quickly and certainly had enough spending money provided to them for the cab's faire, they were still in the middle of a busy city during rush hour. The traffic was just not moving, and Team Three started to panic that this could be the end of their Pokémon Journey.

Trainer X and Trainer Y were each handed a bright yellow bicycle in their size. After checking where they were with his GPS software, X quickly mapped out the fastest route to the local Pokémon Center.

Trainer X hopped onto his bike, turned to Trainer Y and said, "I'll lead, stay close."

Team Five had gotten onto a boat, even though they were just slightly behind Team One. As Trainer White started to stow her bags, she looked over to see her partner had fallen asleep in his seat. With her bag stowed, she sat down next to him, picked up his arm and placed it around her shoulders, as she opened up her New Nintendo 3DS XL. They had a few stops to go before they reached their destination so she booted up the already installed copy of _Pokémon Omega Ruby_ and started to play.

The rush hour traffic was irrelevant to Team Six as they zipped around the stalled cars on their rented bikes. Both X and Y had done plenty of bike riding back home, and neither one of them were in any danger of slowing down or becoming winded anytime soon. They pedaled around the stalled cars as they continued their journey towards their destination. Without noticing, Team Six sailed past the stalled taxi cab holding the members of Team Three.

Team One had finally got on their train and were headed off to the Pokémon Center. The sights and sounds of the city passed by them as they sat next to each other and prepared to take a short break. There was nothing they could do as they waited for the train to reach its destination so Blue pulled out her New 3DS XL and booted up the 3DS's copy of _Pokémon Alpha Sapphire_ for the first time.

As Red put his bag in the overhead compartment above them, he looked over to Blue and said to her, "You know, this would make for a great V-log."

Team Five's boat was going very slowly. While it was moving at a steady pace up the water passages, the boat driver just wasn't increasing his speed. After checking the other signs in the water, Trainer White quickly figured out why. The boat was traveling in a _no wake zone_ , which meant it was forbidden to increase its speed past five miles per hour while it was in the passage.

Team One's train started to slow down. After checking their train map against their current location, Trainer Red started to get up.

Red looked at Blue and said, "I think this is the closest stop. After that it's a straight run to the Pokémon Center. Have you got your running shoes on? "

Blue smiled, put her 3DS in her bag, stood up, pointed at her sneakers and said, "Always."

Rush hour had passed and the traffic started to thin out a bit on the major roads. Team Three's taxi was finally moving again.

Team Six was starting to get winded. While they were told they could ride their bikes all the way to their destination, the stress of the long bike ride was finally starting to get to them. They weren't far from their destination, but their legs had become so sore from pedaling up the roads they may as well be miles away.

Trainer X slowed down to a stop. Trainer Y slowed down behind him and pulled over to the side of the road next to him.

X was panting heavily and said to Y, "Let's take a quick break."

Team Five's boat had finally reached the closest docking point to their destination. The boat pulled over to the side, and the crew members threw some ropes over to tie the boat to the dock. Within no time at all, they had the boat tied to the dock, and the boat's passengers were allowed to leave.

Trainer White shook her fiancée awake and said, "Let's go, we've got to run now."

The members of Team Six finished their break and headed back up the road on their bikes. They weren't far from their goal, and they would be sprinting to the finish line from now on.

The members of Team One ran out of the train station as fast as they could towards the Pokémon Center. As they saw the first glimpses of it off in the distance it triggered the same feeling with both of them as the first time they saw a Pokémon Center in the video games. The Center represented a sanctuary offering essential resources for Pokémon Trainers out on their journey. Now it was once again their sanctuary after a long day's journey across the land.

From the second they walked off the boat, Team Five sprinted at top speed towards their destination. They didn't know it, but they were slightly behind Team One, and they didn't have much time left if they planned to overtake them.

Team One was the first team to reach the Pokémon Center. As they crossed the finish line in front of the store, Bill from Nintendo walked out of the front doors of the building to address the winners.

Bill smiled at them and said, "Congratulations Team One, you have made it to the Pokémon Center first! For winning today's challenge, you are entitled to a Pokémon Center Shopping spree, valued at $5,000! Good for you! Go ahead, go inside and shop to your heart's content while we wait for the other teams to arrive."

As Bill finished his speech, the members of Team Five crossed the finish line. They were both disappointed they had made it behind Team One, but hopeful they were not the last to reach the destination. White looked up at Bill, hoping that they were still in this competition.

Bill smiled at Trainers Black and White and said, "Congratulations Team Five, you are the second team to reach the Pokémon Center. For your accomplishment you have won a Pokémon Center Gift Card valued at $2,500 dollars and are safe from elimination!"

Trainer White was so relieved to hear the news that they hadn't been eliminated she gave Trainer Black a big kiss, and then gave Bill a kiss on his cheek.

As the members of Team Five started to shop, Team Six pulled their bikes up to the entrance of the Pokémon Center and crossed the finish line in front of Bill. Sweating and exhausted, they hoped to hear good news from the host.

"Congratulations Team Six, you are the third team to reach the Pokémon Center. You are safe from elimination and you have won a Pokémon Shopping Spree valued at $1,000! Go inside and have fun!"

Team Six was excited to hear the news that they were still competing, and were pretty happy at the prize that they had one. Trainer X turned to Y and gave her a big high five.

Trainer X looked at Y and said, "We did it, are you ready to shop?"

Y smiled and said, "Absolutely."

The members of Team Six walked into the building to go shopping with the other teams.

A taxi cab finally pulled up to the Pokémon Center. Ruby and Sapphire paid the driver, got out of the cab, shut the cab door behind them, and finally walked across the finish line hoping amongst hope to hear good news from Bill.

Bill shook his head at them and said, "I'm very sorry Team Three but you two are the last to reach your destination. I'm afraid that means you have been eliminated. Thank you for playing, but I'm afraid that your Pokémon Journey ends here."

Team Three was devastated to hear the news, and the teammates silently walked away from the group. They were escorted to a small lounge with comfy couches and were told they could say whatever they wanted in front of the television cameras.

Trainer Sapphire began to express her frustration over their elimination, "I kind of feel like Team Rocket sabotaged our chances of winning today's challenge by causing that giant traffic jam."

Trainer Ruby nodded his head and said, "Yeah. Looking back on it, it was probably a bad idea for us to choose to use a cab, but I guess we have to stand by our decision. I'm just really happy we got to participate in this awesome event, and that they aren't going to sue us for our parody videos."

Sapphire squinted her eyes at Ruby for saying such a silly thing and then continued expressing her thoughts, "We're also really excited for all the prizes that we've won. I can't wait to start downloading some new games from the Nintendo eShop on my New Nintendo 3DS XL. You can also be sure I'm going to catch every single legendary Pokémon in my copy of _Pokémon Alpha Sapphire_."

Back inside the Pokémon Center, the four remaining teams were shopping away. Team Two, who had won immunity earlier in the episode, had been given a lift to the location so they could enjoy their shopping spree, and was shopping away alongside the other teams.

Before the teams started their spending their prize money, Bill got the four remaining teams to sit down together so he could tell them what was in store for them in the next episode.

"Congratulations for making it this far, Trainers," began Bill, "you have all earned your spots in this competition. Now I'm sure many of you are wondering what your next challenge is going to be." Bill pointed over at a map hanging on the wall. It took a second for the trainers to realize what was on the map, but after a few seconds it was clear that the map was of the land from the third generation games.

Bill took a deep breath and said, "Pack your swimsuits and sunscreen, Trainers. We're going to Hoenn!"

The teams let out a big cheer. They had no idea what they would be doing in the next episode, but they were all going to be along for the ride.

 _What an episode! Team three has been eliminated, and we're now down to four teams. Ironic how a simple traffic jam could be the deciding factor between victory and defeat? But you all know only one team can be the very best like no one ever was, and we've got a lot more episodes to go. Next time, we'll be headed to the tropical islands of the South Pacific in search for the real world inspiration for the land of Hoenn. What challenges are in store for the trainers? Who will win? Only time will tell. So please stay with us. This is Bill from Nintendo, and I'll see you next week._


	3. Episode 3

**Episode 3**

 _You are about to read the story of a Pokémon-themed reality game show that could take place in the real world._ _ **The entire story is a work of parody protected under the First Amendment and all events are entirely fictional.**_ _In several cases, the names of famous people or technology involved with Nintendo or The Pokémon Company may be used._

"Hi I'm Bill from Nintendo, the host of _The Amazing Pokémon Journey_. If you're just joining us, let me bring you up to speed on the latest information about our contestants. We have been challenging twelve elite Pokémon Trainers hailing from all over the world in all aspects of what it is like to be a real world Pokémon Master. Last week, we had the Pokémon Trainers go all over Japan in the search for a Pokémon Center, and sadly that meant the team that made it to their destination last, Team Three, had to be eliminated from the competition. This week, the four remaining teams are headed out to a remote volcanic island where anything can and will happen."

A beautiful tropical paradise off the coast of Japan faded into view as this week's episode began. The islands surrounding Japan are some of the most beautiful you will ever see, and served as the inspiration for the third generation _Pokémon_ games, as well as their remakes, _Pokémon Omega Ruby_ and _Pokémon Alpha Sapphire_.

The remaining eight Pokémon Trainers stood at the dock overlooking the incredible sea behind them. Directly behind Bill was the overbearing outline of an enormous ferry.

Bill smiled at the teams and greeted them, "Welcome back, Trainers. Congratulations to all of you for making it this far. Today, we'll be headed out to the islands of the South Pacific, the inspiration for the land of Hoenn. But before we continue with your Pokémon Journey, we need to talk about today's immunity challenge."

The remaining Trainers became very anxious in hearing there would be an immunity challenge for this round. The last episode's trivia contest had spared Team Two from competing in the elimination challenge, and if there was going to be an immunity challenge here, it could be over anything.

Bill began giving his instructions and said, "Before we start our immunity challenge, I wanted to remind you that players can do more than just training or capturing Pokémon in the Pokémon World. Anyone remember the exploits of Todd Snap, the Pokémon Photographer?"

Several of the older Trainers nodded their heads after Bill asked that question.

Bill continued, "Today's immunity challenge is a real-world version of _Pokémon Snap_. Behind us is the S.S. Queen Anne, which we got special delivered to us straight from Kanto. It'll be taking us to our final destination and the next step on your Pokémon Journey, the Hoenn Islands."

All of the teams cheered. A new land with new challenges lay before them.

"Along the boat ride to the islands, you will encounter Pokémon of all kinds. Some will be in the water, some in the sky and some on land. Your objective is to take pictures with your New Nintendo 3DS XL systems of as many Pokémon as you can during the ride. We will then take the photos from both of your 3DS systems and score them on their clarity, visibility and how well the Pokémon is in frame. Like with _Pokémon Snap_ , we will only score the best photo of each individual Pokémon. The team with the highest combined score will win immunity from this challenge, and will be allowed to enjoy their day on the Hoenn Islands however they see fit."

Trainer Red leaned over to his partner's ear and whispered, "All right! I loved _Pokémon Snap_!"

The teams loaded onto the S.S. Queen Anne and pulled out their New Nintendo 3DS XL units. The handheld could take pictures in full 3D, but 3D photographs required a lot of light. Thankfully it was a beautiful sunny morning, with just a hint of fog on the vast ocean surrounding them. They were in the best position to take some of the most beautiful pictures ever published in 3D.

The boats sailed off at top speed from the coast of the Japanese mainland. As Red was about to sit down in a lounge chair, his partner Trainer Blue walked out of her cabin wearing a very sexy blue bikini. Red's jaw practically hit the floor when he saw her.

Trainer X and Trainer Y were seated at the forward section of the boat with their New Nintendo 3DS XL systems out and set to photo mode. Trainer X had figured that the front of the boat was the best spot to scout for Pokémon, and they would be ready for when any Pokémon appeared.

The members of Team Five were at the ship's stern. Trainer White had figured that just like with the ship's forward section, the stern would be able to get a full view of everything the ship had passed, but she was banking on the fact that the stern would be able to afford better chance to snap photos of anything that the other teams might have missed.

Team Two were sitting at the ship's port side. Gold and Silver had their 3DS systems ready to go, with their photo app enabled, and their 3D screens switched on. They had a full panoramic view of the entire left side of the ship, and they would be taking advantage of it.

Trainer Gold turned to Silver and said, "Let's make this interesting. I got a Dragonite download code from GameStop before we headed over to Japan. I haven't used it yet, but if you snap a Pokémon picture before I do, I will give it to you."

Trainer Silver squinted her eyes and said, "Fine. I've got a Legendary Meloetta stored in the _Pokémon Bank_. If you get the first picture I'll trade it to you for a Pidgey."

Gold nodded his head and said, "Deal."

Almost as if on cue, a Pokémon appeared off in the distance just as Gold and Silver shook their hands. It was a giant blue Gyrados. The show's art department had really outdone themselves in making such a large and detailed statue of the famous Pokémon. The statue was half submerged in the water with its head slightly above the waterline. As the boat passed, the statue squirted some water out of its mouth.

Silver opened up her 3DS and snapped up Team Two's first picture. The confident woman then turned to Gold and said, "Pay up!"

Gold pulled the Dragonite card from his pocket and handed it to Silver. As he promised, the code was intact, and had not been used.

As the Gyrados passed, the boat continued through the photo area at a slower pace. There were certainly more Pokémon for the teams to snap. Every team was able to get a decent picture of the next Pokémon to appear, a full sized Charizard. It was easy to spot because the show's effects team had rigged it with an actual flaming tail and the ability to breathe fire from its mouth.

More Pokémon began to appear in front of the Trainers. A really good attention to detail was paid on which Pokémon to put in the area. They capped off which Pokémon would appear at Generation 3, due to the fact that they were trying to replicate the land of Hoenn.

Back at the front of the boat Trainer Y saw something out in the distance. Her partner saw it too. Trainer X looked over to Y and said, "I think that's a Sharpedo."

They both raised their 3DS systems and snapped a few pictures. They weren't the only ones. A few minutes later, Team Two was able to spot an enormous Lapras off in the distance. Team Five was also able to get some photos of that Lapras, but nobody else saw it.

The boat was slowly getting closer to its destination. Once the members of Team Six were able to see the enormous docks in front of them, they decided the challenge was over and began closing up their cameras.

As the boat slowed to dock, the members of Team One also decided the challenge was over. Trainer Blue decided she had gotten enough sun for the day, and also began to pack up her Nintendo handheld.

Blue looked over at Trainer Red, who was near her travel bag, and asked him, "Could you throw me my beach dress? It's in my bag."

At the stern of the boat, Trainer Black thought he could see something out of the corner of his eye. There was a giant rock protruding out of the ocean, but he was sure he could see a Pokémon was hiding behind it.

He looked over at Trainer White, pointed behind the rock and asked, "Honey? Do you see that behind the rock?"

Trainer White pulled up the zoom function on her camera and tried to look as close as she could to what was behind the rock. A statue of a Pokémon with very short arms and a very long tail looked as if it was floating slightly above the water.

"Oh my god," replied his fiancée, "Honey, I think that's Mew."

Trainer White snapped up a few pictures of the Legendary Pokémon, then went back to searching for more. None of the other teams had spotted Mew, and Team Five was going to keep that secret for themselves.

The boats docked, and the four teams grabbed their belongings and exited. As they came onto shore, Bill from Nintendo greeted them at the dock.

Bill looked over the teams and said, "Before you go any further, turn your New Nintendo 3DS XL systems off, and present us your system's MicroSD cards. Don't worry about losing any of your data, we marked every one of those cards before we gave them to you, so we know whose card belongs to who."

The Trainers shut their systems down and handed each of them to several of the show's stagehands.

The eight Trainers were escorted to a giant stage set up on the beach.

Bill from Nintendo came onto the stage when all the teams arrived. He was dressed in a classic safari outfit which looked quite appropriate given the hostile conditions and addressed the three remaining teams, "Welcome to the Hoenn Islands trainers. They are among the most remote and beautiful islands in the world."

As Bill continued his speech, two supermodels dressed as Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny began returning the New Nintendo 3DS XL units to their respective trainers.

"However one team will not need to join us on today's journey. As I speak, our technical experts are going over all of the photos you took on the boat ride over here, and as I promised the Team with the best combined photo portfolio will earn immunity from today's challenge and a special prize."

Bill looked over to the technical experts huddled together around a group of laptops next to the stage. They had copied the data from all of the MicroSD cards they had been provided, and were pouring over them as quickly as they could to determine which team had taken the best photos and would win immunity from today's challenge.

The technical group eventually nodded their heads in agreement, and their leader raised his thumbs up at Bill. The supermodel dressed as Nurse Joy walked over to Bill and handed him a gold envelope.

Bill quickly opened the envelope and read the ingredients out, "I see we have a decision on which team is a winner," and declared, "Team Five wins immunity."

The teams applauded for their fellow contestants. Trainer Black took a small bow as Trainer White began to blush slightly.

Bill turned to Team Five and said, "Your photos were among the most detailed of the entire group and that earned you several extra points when they were being scored. You also were able to capture a picture of the hidden Mew, which was behind one of the large rocks ashore. For your success, you two have won immunity from this challenge and cannot be eliminated today. You have also won a special gift, these cool new Charizard Tote Bags that can only be found on the official Pokémon Center website, ! Congratulations!"

As Nurse Joy brought the members of Team Five their prizes, Bill read the remaining teams their instructions for the day, "Today, you are all Pokémon Rangers. It is going to be your duty to protect these islands from nefarious individuals. These islands are practically brimming with life thanks to the volcanic soil, but many dangers are always a step away. There have been reports that operatives from both Team Magma and Team Aqua are on these islands, and we do not yet know what they plan to do here. You must trek through jungles with your supplies as you search for Pokémon Poachers. These poachers are tough and will not go down without a fight, so to defeat them you must challenge each of them to a Pokémon Battle! I hope you've been playing the latest _Pokémon_ titles on your New Nintendo 3DS XLs during your downtime, as you will be using the teams you've built over the past few days in those battles. "

Trainer Y from Team Six shook her head, she hadn't been playing her copy of the game that much on her downtime, and she did not have any high level Pokémon in her team.

"However," continued Bill, "if you have not been playing that much, fear not because you will have an opportunity to obtain some high level Pokémon for your teams. See, we are not far from the Safari Zone, where Pokémon Trainers can catch unique high level Pokémon for a fee. Well, we've had the fee waved for today, and you all will be able to have unlimited access to catch all the Pokémon you can."

Team Five was lead away from the group by some of the stagehands so they could enjoy their day on the islands however they wanted. The three remaining teams braced themselves for the challenge to begin.

Bill resumed his speech, "On the count of three, you may begin your trek up the mountain. Remember, if you run up against members of Team Aqua or Team Magma, you _must_ accept their challenge to a Pokémon Battle. I hope you are all prepared for this challenge, it will be the most difficult you have faced so far."

Trainer Gold looked at Trainer Silver, nodded and said, "We got this."

Trainer X pulled his Nintendo handheld out of his pocket. He was going to be headed for the Safari Zone the second that buzzer sounded.

Trainer Red looked at Blue and asked, "I don't know if I have enough high level Pokémon for this challenge. Should we go to the Safari Zone?"

Bill got out from behind his podium, stood in the middle of the stage and began the countdown, "Five, four, three, two….one!"

An air horn blasted in the background, coupled with an explosion of confetti erupting from behind the stage. The three teams vulnerable to elimination began their trek up the path in front of them.

Not far up the mountain path, the trail forked into two separate directions. A sign at the fork detailed where the splitting trails went. The left path would take the teams further up the mountain. The right path would take them to the Safari Zone.

Team Two was the first to make it to the fork. Trainer Gold looked at his partner and said, "My Pokémon levels are fine and I caught a few legendaries. I don't think we should stop."

Trainer Silver nodded, and Team Two headed up the left path, where the two continued their climb up the mountain.

The next team to reach the fork was Team One. Both Red and Blue had been playing their games a lot during their downtime, but neither one of them were sure if they had enough high level Pokémon to win the challenge ahead.

Trainer Red pointed at the Safari Zone sign and asked, "Should we go?"

Trainer Blue nodded, and the two headed to the Safari Zone.

The Safari Zone was located not much further up the path. It was a beautifully decorated area, with a small cabin shack equipped with Wi-Fi overlooking a cute little pond. Floating in the pond were several bobbers, which likely held Pokémon below them. Next to the pond were several fishing rods, likely set up to catch whatever was in the pond.

A supermodel dressed as a bug catcher walked up to the members of Team One and said, "Welcome to the Safari Zone. Don't worry, this is a protected area and you aren't in danger of being attacked by any Pokémon Poachers here. Grab a good rod and try to pick up a floating bobber in the pond. If the bobber has a unique code underneath it, we will gift one of you a special high level Pokémon to bring with you on the journey ahead."

Red and Blue grabbed fishing rods, sat down next to the pond, and started to fish.

The Bug Catcher had one last instruction for them, "One last thing, you are allowed to stay here for as long as you'd like, but remember, your competitors may already be headed up the summit."

Meanwhile, Team Six had also made it to the fork in the road. Trainer X knew that his teammate did not have enough high level Pokémon for the challenge ahead, and knew he could have used a few more for himself, so they both headed straight to the Safari Zone without any debate.

Team Two on the other hand was making good distance up the mountain. As they continued to gain altitude, it was becoming harder for both of them to walk, but the beautiful views of the sun over the Pacific Ocean kept them invigorated. As they started to turn a bend, a very large man dressed in blue hopped out from behind a rock. He looked like one of the Pokémon Poachers that Bill had warned them about.

Gold moved Silver aside and said, "Oh crap, it's a Team Aqua Grunt. Stand back, I'll handle him."

The grunt reached into his pocket and pulled out a New Nintendo 3DS XL. The grunt took a good look at Gold and said with a gruff voice, "Battle."

Seeing that, Trainer Gold pulled out a Nintendo handheld of his very own, turned his hat backwards and responded, "Battle!"

As Team Six reached the entrance to the Safari Zone, they were disappointed to find Team One was already there fishing in the pond. The Bug Catcher walked over to them and brought them up to speed on what they had to do to capture Pokémon in the Safari Zone as Team One continued to fish.

Trainer Red was the first to hook something with his fishing rod. Once his fishing rod was connected to whatever was floating in the water, he started to wheel it up slowly. However, once he finished reeling it in, he found nothing under the float.

The Bug Catcher shook her head and said, "I'm sorry, Trainer. But just like in the game, not all catches here will have Pokémon under them. Try again."

Trainer X grabbed a spare rod and started to fish.

Trainer Y looked over to her partner and said, "I'm seriously behind in catching Pokémon. If we get anything, please let me keep the first catch."

Trainer X nodded at his partner, and the two members of Team Six started to fish.

"Oh my god, I hooked something!" Trainer Blue screamed with delight as she started to reel her catch in.

Trainer Red walked over to help her, and both trainers very quickly determined that this was no empty catch. Once Trainer Blue finished reeling her catch in, they found a tagged number at the end of the line.

The Bug Catcher walked over to Team One and read the number out aloud, "One, one, eight zero. Okay. One of you please turn on your New Nintendo 3DS XL systems, load up your game of _Pokémon Alpha Sapphire_ or _Pokémon Omega Ruby,_ and set it to accept a gift locally."

Trainer Red nodded at Blue and understanding the gesture, Trainer Blue pulled out her handheld and followed the Bug Catcher's instructions.

At the same time Team One was receiving the first Pokémon they caught in the Safari Zone, Team Two had just accidently stumbled upon a very large man dressed as a member of Team Aqua. He had just jumped out from behind a tree as they were making their ascent, and without so much as an extra word, challenged them to a battle.

Once Trainer Blue loaded up her saved game to check the nearest Pokémon Center for her new gift, Blue had discovered she had been given a pretty powerful Serperior by the people of the Safari Zone.

Blue looked over at Red and said, "I've got a level 70 Serperior, should we stay?"

Red shook his head and said, "No, I think we're set. A high level grass type is going to be all we need."

Team One thanked the crew of the Safari Zone and left to start their trek up the mountain. It wasn't long before Team One came across Team Two's position. Of course, because that member of Team Aqua was busy battling Trainer Silver, Team One was able to sidestep them and take the lead.

All of a sudden a giant man dressed as a member of Team Magma came out of the bushes and stepped in front of Trainer Red and Trainer Blue.

The Team Magma Grunt pulled out his New Nintendo 3DS XL and said, "Battle."

Team Two finished their battle against the Team Aqua Grunt without much issue, and continued their trek up the mountain, quickly resuming their lead. Meanwhile the battle between Team One and Team Magma started to heat up. The Magma grunt pulled out his Pokémon, a Houndoom.

Red shook his head in disbelief and said, "Darn, that's a fire type, Serperior isn't going to do much good there. Can you beat him?"

Blue was not concerned and said, "Of course I can, my starter is a water type, and I can Mega Evolve him. This will be a piece of cake."

Team Two had finished their battle with the Team Aqua Grunt and continued their way up the mountain. Along the way, they saw another large man wearing a brightly colored coat, and thought he was a Team Magma Grunt. However, the Grunt hadn't seen them yet, and did not challenge them to a battle.

Meanwhile, Team Six was close to their very first catch. Trainer X had hooked something with his fishing rod and started to reel it in.

The Bug Catcher walked over to the trainers to read out what was on the tag they just pulled out of the water, "Code one, one, three, eight. Please boot up one of your handhelds and set it to receive a gift."

As he promised, Trainer X let his partner take the first catch.

After checking her gift box, Trainer Y looked over at X and told him what she received, "It's a decent-level Raichu. We've got a good one. Should we go?"

Trainer X shook his head and said, "No, let's catch at least one more."

At the same time, Team One had finished their first Trainer Battle and resumed their ascent. However, a fog had started to roll over the mountain, and their visibility was getting reduced. It was becoming difficult for both of them to stay focused on the trail, but they figured as long as they stuck to the clearly marked path, and continued a constant upwards climb, they were going to be okay.

This fog was also making it difficult for the actors playing the members of Team Aqua and Team Magma to see the trainers.

After catching a second Pokémon which turned out to be a high level Gyrados, the members of Team Six decided to leave the Safari Zone and get back onto the mountain path. They knew they were in last place, but they figured that they had enough powerful Pokémon that they could make the ascent faster than the other teams. Trainer X and Trainer Y thanked the Bug Catcher, and Team Six went back onto the trail right into the fog.

Meanwhile, Team Two was making great time. They were able to get around the Team Magma Grunt without being seen, and just like in the game, the show's judges had no problem with their stealthy footwork. As they continued to gain altitude, they walked out of the fog. With a clear field of view, they could see the summit was within sight for both of them. A finish line had been constructed overlooking the gorgeous peak, and they were just footsteps away from it when _another_ member of Team Magma jumped out from behind a tree. The Team Magma Grunt pulled out his Nintendo handheld and challenged Team Two to a battle.

Gold looked a little nervous when he saw the Grunt bring up a Houndoom. He looked at Silver and said, "This might be a problem, I don't have any strong water-types on my team."

Team Six was making their ascent much faster than Team One or Team Two had. As the youngest members of the group, they were used to plenty of physical activity, and neither Trainer X nor Trainer Y were feeling any kind of fatigue. While visibility in the fog was getting tougher, with the exception of the Team Magma Grunt that Team Two had sidestepped, none of the other Pokémon Poachers were currently active and able to challenge them.

Team One had become winded after their last Pokémon Battle, and paused to take a short break. They didn't know it, but they were about to be overtaken by Team Six. Suddenly both of the teammates saw the two ten year olds sprint past them at full speed. Knowing this meant they could now be in danger of elimination, they cut their break short and went racing after them.

Team Six was still outpacing Team One, but the limited visibility caused by the fog made it next to impossible for either team to see that much further in front of them. That's why it was so startling to both of them to see a giant man dressed in a Team Magma costume pop out of what seemed like nowhere and challenge them to a battle.

Trainer Y was not intimidated by the surprise, because she knew she had the right water type to take on the Team Magma Grunt, and she was ready to battle. With her newly caught high level Gyrados, she knew this battle would not take long.

As Team Six hunkered down for their battle, Team One overtook them and headed for the summit. They knew they could not keep pace with Team Six's speed, so their plan was simply to try to gain as much distance as they could ahead of Team Six before Trainer Y could win her battle against the Team Magma Grunt.

Finally, after a long and painful battle, Trainer Gold was finally able to defeat the Team Magma Grunt, and Team Two was within steps of the finish line. The grunt stood defeated and ashamed, and slowly stepped out of Team Two's way.

Trainer Gold looked at Silver and said, "Break time's over, this is a sprint now."

Trainer Silver nodded, and the two sprinted for the finish line as fast as they could run. Somehow, Bill had made it to the top of the volcano before any of the teams could and was there to greet Team Two with a smile and hug as they crossed the finish line.

He looked over at the two former rivals and said, "Congratulations, Team Two, you are the first team to reach the summit and because of that you are free from elimination today. For making it to the top of the summit first, you two have won a special prize, these are gift certificates valued at one hundred and fifty American dollars each which can be used at ."

Trainer Y mopped the floor with the Team Magma Grunt in exactly one round, and now nothing was going to get between them and victory. However, Team One still had an incredible lead on them, and since Team Six had defeated the last active Pokémon Poacher, this challenge had just become a straight run to the summit.

Team Six continued to run the mountain path as quickly as they could. With every step, they continued to gain on Team One, but Team One was just too far ahead at this point to be overtaken. They cleared the fog and clearly saw the summit off in the distance. With a newfound second wind filling up their spirits, Trainer Blue and Trainer Red sprinted to the finish line and crossed it.

Bill walked over to the exhausted team and gave them the pleasant news, "Congratulations, Team One, you are the second team to reach the summit today, and that means you are free from elimination. For your victory, you have each won a gift certificate valued at one hundred American dollars good for any purchase from ."

Just as Bill said those words, the members of Team Six made it past the fog and could clearly see the stage for the first time. They saw that their competitors had made it to the summit before them, and that this meant they would both be eliminated. Exhausted and sore from all their running, Trainer X and Trainer Y were the last to cross the finish line.

Bill looked at their upset faces and said what he had to, "I'm so sorry, Team Six," began Bill, "but you are the last team to make it to the peak of the mountain, and I'm afraid you will have to be eliminated."

The young team was decimated by the news and quietly walked away from the podium to go speak with the camera crew.

Once the eliminated team walked into the confession booth, X turned to Y and said, "You know, I think we did a great job and accomplished a lot. I'm happy we got the prizes that we did, and you can be sure that I'll be playing my games a lot more from now on."

Trainer Y took a deep breath and said, "I'm just happy to be able to represent not only myself, but my friends and family. I don't think anyone thought that we would make it this far, and we surprised a lot of people."

Trainer X smiled and said, "I mean, who else could say they did _this_ on their Summer Vacation?"

The camera cut back over to Bill, who continued to congratulate the remaining teams. Team Five had been brought up to the summit along with Bill because they needed to inform all of the teams of what was in store for them for the next episode. Suddenly, a supermodel dressed as Professor Juniper walked over to the podium and handed Bill a golden envelope.

Bill turned to the Pokémon Professor and said, "Thank you Professor."

As the Professor walked off stage Bill opened up the golden envelope and read out its contents, "Trainers, You all know that no Trainer can simply sit by and retire after they've conquered one region of the world, a true Pokémon Champion will want to conquer as many Pokémon League Championships as they can. That means we're going to move onto the next Pokémon region, Kalos!"

The teams gasped.

"Pack your bags, Trainers because you're ALL going to Paris, France!"

The teams cheered and congratulated each other. White gave Black a big kiss. Hugs and handshakes were given all around, even between rival contestants. They would be moving on with their Pokémon Journey.

 _As the sun fades on our magical day in Hoenn, we can only speculate on what our remaining teams must feel as we take this show out of the Pacific and into Western Europe. What will happen next for the three remaining teams? Will they be able to persevere in an entirely new country, with entirely new challenges in store for them? We will have to wait and see. Until next time, I'm Bill from Nintendo. Thank you for watching._


	4. Episode 4 Part 1

**Episode 4 Part 1**

 _You are about to read the story of a Pokémon-themed reality game show that could take place in the real world._ _ **The entire story is a work of parody protected under the First Amendment and all events are entirely fictional.**_ _In several cases, the names of famous people or technology involved with Nintendo or The Pokémon Company may be used._

After Team Six was eliminated in the previous episode, only three teams remained in the competition. The remaining six Pokémon Trainers were booked on a first class flight from Japan to the heart of Paris, the capital city of France. The flight was expected to take quite a while, so all of the contestants were told to use their downtime however they saw fit. With each Trainer carrying their New Nintendo 3DS XLs in their pockets, the contestants stowed their bags and sat down for the long flight. Once the plane took off, it became obvious that the second the airplane's flight attendants informed them they were allowed to use electronic devices, they would all be resuming their current games of _Pokémon_ _Omega Ruby_ and _Pokémon_ _Alpha Sapphire_.

The teams were separated throughout First Class, but teammates could choose to sit together if they wanted to, and every contestant decided to sit with their teammate. Trainer Black and Trainer White had been exhausted by the time zone difference and they decided to use the flight time to catch up on some sleep.

Trainer Black turned to the flight attendant and said, "Can we have a blanket and some pillows, please?"

The attendant nodded and handed the members of Team Five some sleeping essentials, including eye shades and ear plugs. The two raised up the armrest separating them, cuddled up close together and before they knew it, the members of Team Five were out like a light.

Over at Team One's seats, the two trainers had really started to get to know each other over the past few days. Once they got onto the plane, they found themselves with a bit of free time where they couldn't resume their game progress, so they started to have a discussion about each other's online videos instead.

Trainer Red turned to his partner and said, "You know, that video you did about the best legendary Pokémon was really good."

Trainer Blue responded to her partner, "Thank you, but I really liked your video on the banned episodes of the _Pokémon_ animated series."

Trainer Gold and Trainer Silver chose not to sleep once the plane made it to a safe altitude. Gold preferred to level up his Pokémon the old fashioned way, by grinding random battles as much as he could during the game's story and by capturing the most powerful legendary Pokémon he could after defeating the Pokémon League Championships. He had defeated the Elite Four the night before and since several of the game's most powerful Pokémon could only be captured during the Delta Episode, he was planning to use the flight time to complete it and capture Rayquaza. In comparison, Trainer Silver wasn't as interested in completing the game's storyline at the moment. She believed that she could produce a better team through selective breeding. She knew which Pokémon would work best at procreating together, and during the plane trip she wanted to breed as many shinies as she could. It would be a time consuming task, but she felt it was well worth it to be prepared for the journey ahead.

Unfortunately, the most important aspect of _Pokémon_ , trading, was not an option during the plane ride. International travel guidelines still prohibited using wireless broadcasts during a flight…for some unknown reason. The remaining trainers would have to wait until the plane landed to do any Pokémon trading.

Trainer Gold, who had been playing _Pokémon_ since _Pokémon Yellow_ was released in the early 2000s, was overwhelmed by the irony of their anti-trading guidelines during the flight. Originally, Two-Player Pokémon trades and battles were not done through wireless communication at all, they were done through a physical cable which could connect two Nintendo Game Boy handhelds together, which was called a Link Cable. _Pokémon's_ developers experimented with offering a wireless trade feature during the lifespan of the Game Boy Advance, but its functionality was limited. By the time the Nintendo DS launched in the mid-2000s, wireless connectivity had become standard practice in handheld devices, and the DS shipped with all of the wireless features it needed inside the handheld itself, making _Pokémon's_ multiplayer features much more accessible to DS players than it was during the Game Boy generations. It was undoubtedly an improvement to have wireless battles, since Gold remembered that back in the day next to none of his friends would even have the necessary Link Cable to use _Pokémon's_ multiplayer functions. However, if Nintendo had decided to host this event a decade and a half earlier, they could have been able to trade on the airplane.

After several hours of sleeping, many rounds of random battles, and lots of breeding time, the plane finally landed at Charles de Galle Airport. The three teams had no trouble getting through customs by showing their Pokémon Trainer identification to France's immigration officers. The show had quietly talked to French Immigration beforehand and passed the authorities their proper credentials in advance. Seeing six oddly dressed young people walk through the airport carrying only their small travel bags and waving around their Nintendo handhelds as if they were their real identification was too good of a visual for the TV crew to miss. As the six walked into the main terminal, Bill from Nintendo was ready to greet them.

Bill smiled at all of the trainers and said, "I'd like to welcome the three remaining teams here to Paris, France. One of the reasons why France was chosen as the backdrop for the sixth generation _Pokémon_ games was because of its appreciation for art, fashion and beauty, and as you know, that love of art and beauty carried over into _Pokémon X_ and _Pokémon Y_. Because of that for the rest of the day we're going to be calling this place Lumiose City!"

The three teams all let out a cheer as Bill continued his address, "As you may know, a Pokémon Trainer's journey can be long and involve plenty of walking, running, biking and rollerblading across great distances as they travel across the land trying to become the very best like no one ever was. But as players saw in _Pokémon X_ and _Pokémon Y_ who says you shouldn't look fashionable while doing it?"

Trainer Blue turned to her partner and gave a huge smile. She had studied fashion in college but was never able to get any of her ideas into production before she became a YouTube star. She was giddy thinking of the chance to flex her creative muscles after all this time.

Bill continued providing background while the teams listened closely, "Today, we're going to be headed into the heart of Paris's elite fashion district. Some of the world's top clothing designers are going to be attending a special fashion show, something that none of them have ever seen before. This will be a show where _you_ will design, assemble, and model your own brand-new Pokémon Trainer clothing!"

The three teams let out a big cheer. They were going to be fashion trendsetters for the day!

Once the cheers concluded, Bill continued with his instructions, "When we all leave here we will be taking a bus to our destination, the heart of the city's fashion district. When you get on the bus, each of you will be issued drawing pads and other creative implements, like color pencils, markers and pens, perfect tools for sketching out ideas for new clothing designs. The bus trip will take exactly one hour, so I suggest you use the time you have to plan out what you want your outfits to look like. Once we've reached our destination you will be paired up with some of the best seamstresses in the country, and they will help you make your drawings into real clothing."

This was shaping up to be a really exciting immunity challenge, and hardly a foreign one to the Pokémon franchise. While the option for trainers to change their clothing was not available until _Pokémon X_ and _Pokémon Y_ were released in 2013, you couldn't forget the use of Pokémon Contests in several of the earlier games. These Pokémon Contests were major events where Pokémon were judged based on their appearance and the aesthetic quality of their attacks. In fact, Pokémon Contests were shown in the animated series too, and many episodes revolved around trainers who tried to win them.

Bill took a deep breath as he gave his final instructions, "Each team must complete two distinct outfits, one for a male trainer, and one for a female trainer. From there you will model your designs in front of a panel of judges. Each outfit will be graded on three criteria, and those criteria are practicality, durability, and of course, style. The team who wins this challenge will be granted immunity and guaranteed a spot in the final episode!"

The six contestants silently nodded in agreement as the bus started to pull away from the airport.

Trainer Blue was in heaven. She was sketching clothing designs within seconds. Having played many of the Pokémon titles over the years, she knew what the most basic designs were for any Pokémon Trainer. They would need clothes that looked like they could work in any environment, but most importantly, she wanted to design a unique hat for herself that would not only be practical, but be sure to catch the eye of the judges.

Blue's partner, Trainer Red, was completely lost. His sketchpad was pretty blank, with only a vague outline of a human form on it, but he had no specific clothing drawn yet.

Blue looked over at Red's work and said, "Don't worry, I got this."

Trainer Red nodded at his partner, and then went to get Blue some more color pencils.

The members of Team Two had decided to split their work evenly. Trainer Gold was focused specifically on the male trainer's design, where Silver was working specifically on the design for the female trainer's outfit. Thankfully, the creative implements they were given were pretty varied, and allowed for a lot of different colors in their sketches. Trainer Gold wanted a small hint of a gold trim in his design for the male trainer, and he was hoping they could replicate that when they created the finished product.

Meanwhile, Team Five was completely focused on their work, and weren't paying much attention to the beautiful sights all around them. As Trainer Black continued with his sketches, the bus made its way through downtown Paris. As the bus made its way to the Arc d'Triumphe, the group could see the Eiffel Tower off in the distance. While everyone else on the bus was marveling at the Arc in front of them, Trainer Black saw something odd flash in the corner of his eye. Black had traveled to France over a decade earlier during a foreign exchange program, and because of that he knew the layout of Paris pretty well. The Eiffel Tower looked like a marvel to all of the contestants able to see it from their seats, but from Trainer Black's perspective, something looked a bit different about the tower. Workmen were busy doing construction work all around it, and Black could see they were installing new lighting systems all around the tower's metal framework. Typically the tower would be lit up like a Christmas Tree during the summer time to celebrate Bastile Day, the anniversary of France's independence, but that had already passed. Black had no idea what was going on.

The bus finally reached their destination and the trainers began to file out. They were lead into a massive warehouse outfitted with various high quality fabrics and textiles of every color imaginable. Each work desk was outfitted with sewing machines and several manufacturers were standing at attention around each desk.

As the teams walked into their studio space, Bill began to give the final instructions for today's immunity challenge, "Now that we're all here, we can get started manufacturing your designs. You each have six hours to complete your task. You may use any of the tools and resources we've provided here. We know that even with all the resources here, six hours isn't a lot of time to make two complete outfits from scratch, so we have some of the best clothing manufacturers in the world here to assist you. They will be able to help you take your designs and make them real. Don't forget, you'll be modeling your own designs, so make sure to take your own measurements to make sure your clothes will fit you."

The remaining six trainers held their collective breath as they waited for Bill to start the challenge, "This challenge begins in three, two…one. Go!"

A horn blasted and the three teams headed to their workstations. At each position they were greeted by several assistants who were hired to help them get their designs completed in a timely manner. Each assistant was hired from the local fashion college, and while none of them had their degrees yet, they all had experience working in high pressure environments and could produce quality clothing quickly. They were certainly going to need people with those kinds of skills if they wanted any chance of finishing this challenge on time.

As Trainer White tried to explain her designs to one of her assistants, another assistant was quickly taking Trainer Black's measurements, much to his embarrassment.

The members of Team Two were showing their sketches to their assistants, who immediately started presenting them potential fabrics. As Trainer Gold looked at the options being presented to him, he started to shake his head in disappointment at his choices, but Trainer Silver saw something that she liked a lot and wanted as much of it as she could get.

Over at Team One's table, Trainer Blue had taken complete charge of the process. She was running this challenge like a drill sergeant, and personally assigned each assistant to a particular task. Her partner's head was spinning just watching how quickly she was able to get things done.

As they continued to work, Trainer Blue looked at Trainer Red and said, "Can you tell I'm used to this? I've had a lot of experience manufacturing custom clothing from when I was at school. Can you do me a favor, and get our measurements taken?"

Trainer Red nodded and went over to grab a tape measure off of one of the desks. When he came back, he realized he had never taken someone's measurement before, and had no idea where to measure. As he stood there, puzzled by what to do with the tape, Blue looked up from her designs and knew she needed to help her befuddled partner.

Trainer Blue looked at Trainer Red and said, "You need to measure at three places in a person's body. Hold the tape around each of the three sections and write down each of the measurements. Here, I'll show you."

Blue grabbed the measuring tape out of Red's hand and quickly started to measure him. Red was a little embarrassed since Blue had to get pretty close to him to measure his body, but Blue acted completely professionally, and it made him feel a bit better after she finished her work.

After she finished writing down her partner's measurements, she handed him back the tape and said, "There, now measure me."

Within no time, every team had the basic outlines for the clothing they planned to wear and their assistants were hard at work presenting each of the contestants with every possible fabric and pattern they had in storage.

Work was moving quickly over at Team Two's table. Trainer Silver and one of her assistants was almost done selecting all the fabric they were going to need for their female trainer outfit, however her partner was still not happy with the options that he was being presented for his male trainer outfit.

Gold turned to his assistants and said, "I want some gold trim for my jacket! I think it would make for a good accent that would catch the judge's eyes without being too flashy."

The assistant nodded their head and went to select some gold fabrics.

Back over at Team One's table, Blue knew simple clothing was not enough to wow the judges. Their clothes would need a special statement piece, and she had decided early on that would mean a special hat. She had been doing sketches since they were on the bus, and she was going to use every minute they had to produce the best possible clothes she could.

Hours passed as the teams continued to work, and time was quickly ticking down. The six hours they had been allotted was nearly up, and only a few of the teams had their work ready to go.

Trainer Gold was satisfied with his finished work, and smiled as he got a good look at the sliver of golden trim he sewed into the bottom section of his jacket.

Trainer Blue was just exhausted. She not only had successfully constructed two complete outfits from scratch, she had done all of that work nearly by herself. As the clock continued to tick down, she had just started to put the finishing touches on her female trainer's hat.

Bill checked his watch as he counted down the final seconds of the immunity challenge, "Three, two…one. Time!"

The buzzer loudly rang out, and all of the teams backed away from their workstations.

Bill stood in front of the exhausted teams and gave them his final instructions, "Congratulations everyone on a hard fought immunity challenge. Now, I'm going to advise all of you to take your new clothes and get dressed for the judges. Oh, and we won't be having the judging here in this warehouse, this challenge's judging is going to be taking place somewhere very special."

The teams grabbed their newly designed trainer clothes and scrambled into their provided changing rooms. Knowing the details of their judging, each of the trainers saw fit to include pockets or an accessory bag with their outfit, so they could keep their New Nintendo 3DS systems and any extra essentials they needed on them.

With their newest fashionable creations on, the remaining six trainers filed out of the warehouse and went back into their provided coach bus. Once everyone was on board, the bus took off and headed back into the city and within no time the bus had reached their destination.

As the trainers got out of the bus, a beacon of light in the the unmistakable night sky beckoned them. The Eiffel Tower, outfitted with beautiful lights all along its exposed metal frame, lay before the six trainers.

The teams walked the long path up to the Eiffel Tower, and each trainer noticed a huge stage had been set up for the event. However, this stage was different than the ones they had previously seen, it was equipped with a runway overlooking the beautifully lit tower behind them. Bill from Nintendo stood at the front of the runway, behind his usual podium. On the side of Bill's podium stood a long desk with three empty chairs behind it and three small tablet computers on top of it. With each trainer wearing their fashion creations, the three teams walked up to the front of the stage to listen to Bill's instructions.

Bill looked at the remaining three teams with pride and said, "Trainers, I see all of you have gotten dressed, and let me assure you that you have all dressed for a very special occasion. Behind me stands the majestic Eiffel Tower, but you know it better as the Lumiose City Gym. Your fashion show will be happening right here, under the lights of this beautiful city!"

A cheer rang out among the crowd.

Trainer Black shouted, "Viva la France!"

After the cheering died down, Bill continued with his instructions, "Here's how you will be scored for this challenge. Each outfit will be judged on three criteria, practicality, durability, and style. Each criteria will be given a point value based on a scale of one to ten, with ten being the highest possible number. Each judges' score will be combined, making for a maximum of thirty possible points for each criteria. When added amongst the three possible criteria, that makes for a total of ninety points for each outfit, all for a maximum of one hundred and eighty total points for both outfits. The team with the highest combined point value at the end of judging will be declared the winner of the immunity challenge, and guaranteed a spot in the finals. A reminder, each judge has been instructed on the ways of Pokémon fashion, but their decisions are their own, and they are final."

The three teams applauded and cheered in unison.

Bill waited for the applause to die down, and then continued his speech, "I see you're all ready for this challenge. So let's introduce today's judges, shall we?"

A young woman walked onto stage and Bill introduced her, "Here's our first judge. This woman is a high concept fashion designer who was born in France but operates boutiques across the world. There is nothing she will not do and nowhere she will not go."

The first judge took the stage to thunderous applause, and quietly sat at the judge's table.

Bill continued introducing the judges as a middle aged man walked onto stage, "Here's our second judge. This man is known as one of the greatest clothing designers in the United States. You've seen his clothes in high end retail stores and boutiques all across the world. How do you know they're his clothes? Just look for his name, it will be written all over them!"

The second judge stepped off the stage and quietly sat down next to the first judge as Bill prepared to introduce the final judge.

After the second judge took his seat, Bill took a quick look at the empty chair set at the judges' desk, and then continued to address the contestants, "Last but not least is our special guest judge. You know him for his films, television appearances, and activism! Please welcome, the irrepressible John Waters!"

Suddenly John Waters stepped onto the stage and smiled big. There was no mistaking his clever mustache and outgoing personality, this was John Waters, and everyone was surprised to see him. A deafening cheer broke out among the trainers, cast and crew for the third judge. John Waters especially enjoyed the attention and took a little bow.

Before taking his seat, Mr. Waters looked at the trainers and said, "Pokémon asked me to come in for this little event. They said they liked my judging style and the fact that I've overseen fashion challenges like this in the past. I told them it would be no problem, and who am I to pass up the chance to visit Paris? I wish you all the best of luck!"

When Mr. Waters took his seat, Bill nodded and decided to say something off script to the three judges, "I just want all of you to know, I want to thank the three of you for your commitment to the arts."

The judges blushed slightly, but waved and nodded their thanks for the kind words. After the applause died down, several stagehands lead the six contestants backstage, so each trainer would have the chance to walk down the runway with their partner.

Once all the trainers were backstage, Bill began the challenge by saying, "The stage is set and the judges are seated. Let's get this immunity challenge started shall we? First up are the members of Team One. Trainer Blue, please come out."

Trainer Blue walked onto the runway wearing a beautiful royal blue sundress. The color was so striking it could clearly be seen by anyone even remotely near the stage, exactly what Blue wanted. She decided to opt for a skirt length which would stop just a few inches above her knees, which was actually intended to me more of a practical choice than an aesthetic one, but even she couldn't deny how good she looked wearing it. While her dress had no pockets, she had a black tote bag close to her side to hold her essential equipment. For weather protection her outfit had an enormous white hat with a wide brim, which would provide excellent protection from the sun and rain, and instead of sandals, wedges or pumps, she chose to wear top of the line hiking boots, so her feet would walk in any road or weather condition.

The three judges looked at each other and started to nod while they continued to take notes. They decided that John Waters should speak first.

John Waters chose to be pretty clear with his words when he said to Trainer Blue, "I just love this outfit. Girl you look so hot."

Blue blushed at the complement and nodded at the judges.

After John Waters finished speaking, the first judge decided to give her thoughts, "While I don't know if I would choose to wear a sundress for a cross country journey, like the ones you would be required to go on if you were on your way to becoming a Pokémon master, the fact that you're wearing practical shoes makes up for a lot of that. And I know that you must prepare for every weather condition, including heat and sun exposure, but I think that hat of yours not only works well for that, but it really makes a statement."

The second judge spoke up after hearing his peer's comments, "I agree, that hat just speaks volumes."

Once Bill saw that the judges had concluded their comments, he turned and said, "Thank you judges, now let's bring Trainer Blue's partner out here shall we? Trainer Red, please take the runway."

Sheepishly, Trainer Red walked onto the runway wearing a very sharp looking outfit. Blue had been heavily inspired by the first generation games as well as current fashion trends when she designed his outfit. She decided he would wear several layers of clothing on his top section, starting with a short sleeved red t-shirt with a Charizard on it. Over that t-shirt was a longer sleeved black button shirt, which was left open for the runway, but could be buttoned up if weather conditions got colder. On top of all of that was a black fleece vest, perfect for keeping his core warm in extreme cold. His outfit did not have too many spare pockets, so, just like Ash Ketchum had in the animated series, he had a very stylish red backpack with him to carry his 3DS and other essential items. For shoes, Blue picked out some very trendy black cross trainers, which were comfortable in any conditions, if not entirely robust.

John Waters looked like he needed a few minutes to collect his thoughts, so judge number one spoke first, "I like where you're going with this. Your outfit is simple yet aesthetically pleasing. Minimal but practical."

The second judge nodded in agreement and said, "By adding several layers in your top section and including a backpack, you can simply choose which layers you want to wear for any particular environment. I can just imagine several of my customers deciding to pick up several pieces of my clothing designs, and layering them on top of each other depending on the day's weather. That would work for me because it would mean there would be more places for people to see my name."

After Bill saw that the judges were finished giving their thoughts to Trainer Red's outfit, he decided to move things along and said, "Thank you to all of the judges, we are computing the scores for Team One right now. Team One please take your seats, because it's time to bring out the members of Team Two. Trainer Gold, please come out."

Trainer Gold smiled as he walked onto the stage. His outfit looked very much like something you would wear when training for an athletic event. He chose to wear stretchable black nylon pants which could run the risk of ripping during a journey, but would be more comfortable to walk long distances in than denim jeans. For his top, he chose to wear a fully customized zip up hooded jacket, which provided plenty of pockets on both its interior and exterior, perfect for holding his 3DS and other supplies he'd need on a Pokémon Journey. Because of all the pockets on his jacket, there was no need for him to include a backpack or tote bag with his costume. Finally for his choice of footwear he decided on high quality tennis shoes. The shoes were very similar in design to the running shoes that Pokémon Trainers would change into during the later generation _Pokémon_ games.

Judge number one was the first to speak, "Gold, your outfit is well made but it looks very basic to me. Other than the gold trim on the jacket there's nothing here that really screams to me that you are trying to be a Pokémon Master."

John Waters nodded in agreement and said, "I agree, other than the gold trim, I think its kinda plain."

Bill nodded compliance once the judges finished their comments, raised his microphone back up to his mouth and said, "Trainer Silver, please come out."

Upon hearing her name called out, Trainer Silver walked onto the stage to join her partner. Her outfit was drastically different than any of the outfits the other trainers would be showing. Instead of opting for a dress like Trainer Blue did, Silver designed herself a fashionable black vest and matching black skirt that could survive different weather conditions. Inspired by the trekking they had been doing through the urban streets and tropical islands, she wanted to make a look which would be durable in any environment, so she opted to make her outfit out of leather. Since her clothing had no pockets, she made sure to include a matching purse so she could carry her gear close to her during a long challenge. Since the outfit was completely black, the only nod to her name would be the silver earrings she was wearing to complete her look.

John Waters spoke up first and said, "Damn girl, are you carrying a whip with that outfit?"

This comment made Trainer Silver blush slightly, but she could totally understand what he was talking about and wasn't offended by the comment. She had to admit, even to herself, that she felt a bit like she was dressed in something Catwoman would wear.

After John Waters finished his comments, the second judge spoke up, "I like your outfit very much and I must say that you look great in it. Leather is very durable, but it can't be that easy to move around in that material."

The first judge offered her thoughts on the outfit as well, "As a woman I could totally understand why you chose to wear a skirt with this outfit. The other judge was right when he mentioned that leather is very durable, but also very difficult to wear. It doesn't stretch. In certain conditions it can be too stiff, and in others too soft. If you had chosen to wear matching pants, I would have had to deduct you points since they would have been very uncomfortable to move in, but since you're wearing a skirt instead I have to give you full props. However, I have noticed you're not wearing a hat or any other type of head protection, and that might be an issue in extremely sunny or rainy conditions."

When the three judges ended their deliberations, Bill got a thumbs up from the show's producers and continued to move the event along by saying, "Thank you Team Two, please take your seats."

The members of Team Two walked off of stage. Both trainers were proud of the work they had accomplished, but a little scared of how the judges would score them.

Once the members of Team Two vacated the stage, Bill called out for Team Five, "Next we'll be seeing what Team Five has in store for us. Trainer Black, please come out."

Trainer Black walked on stage with a purpose. He chose to design some of his outfit after Trainer Black's clothing from the fifth generation games, _Pokémon Black_ and _Pokémon White_ , and because of that, he had decided to create an all-weather zip up jacket for himself that would be able to protect his arms from extreme cold, but also block extreme sunlight. The jacket was a light blue color, just like in the game, but Trainer Black decided to wear distinctive black fingerless gloves to complement the blue jacket, and put a little bit of his own spin on the outfit's color scheme by adding a touch of his own personal namesake and adding black trim to certain sections of the jacket. On his head he wore a baseball cap with a custom logo on it that could immediately invoke memories of any of the _Pokémon_ games or animated series. However, his design was not a complete copy of previous trainer outfits because he chose to wear more practical hiking boots instead of sneakers on his feet since he knew trainers would have to walk on all sorts of terrain. He also added some very stylish sunglasses to complete his look, something else that was not included with the generation five male trainer's design.

Ever irrepressible, John Waters was the first to comment, "Son, you're looking cool in those sunglasses. Never change them."

Trainer Black nodded and thanked John Waters for the complement.

The second Judge decided to comment on Trainer Black's jacket, "The detail on this jacket's construction is quite impressive. I would love to see your designs for it because I would love to have it for sale in several of my boutique stores by the fall, provided my name was written all over it of course."

The first judge nodded her agreement with her peer's judgment on Black's jacket.

"Thank you, judges. Now, let's get his partner out here. Trainer White, please come out."

An overwhelming glare of light flashed through all of the spectator's eyes as Trainer White took to the stage. Not content with simply designing simple clothes with simple logos on them, White had decided her clothing was going to shine the second she took stage. On paper, Trainer White's outfit was both practical and durable. She designed some very durable custom denim shorts which fit her perfectly. But what really stood out for her was her custom shirt. She decided a long sleeved white shirt would be very practical for a Pokémon Journey, but that wouldn't be enough to impress the judges. So she and her assistant painstakingly sewed reflective silver sequins into her shirt and hat to perfectly match the pink logo design from Trainer White's hat in the fifth generation games. For her choice of footwear, she decided to wear similar running shoes to Gym Leader Misty from _Pokémon: The Animated Series_ , only Misty's sneakers were red, and Trainer White made sure her shoes were white.

John Waters was the first judge to comment on Trainer White's outfit, "Girl, I'm going to need to borrow Trainer Black's sunglasses just so I can get a good look at you. Do you mind, son?"

Upon hearing the request, Trainer Black took off his sunglasses and handed them to the judge. He didn't mention out loud that part of the reason he chose to wear sunglasses with his trainer outfit was because he knew that White was going to be wearing all of these sequins, and he didn't want to be blinded when he took the stage next to her either.

As John Waters tried to get his bearings while putting on Trainer Black's sunglasses, the first judge gave her comments, "I like what you've done with the custom logos on your shirt and hat. Your shorts are very practical given the hot weather you've been competing in. It's easier to walk long distances in shorts like that then it is to wear longer pants."

Once John Waters could have a clear look at Trainer White's outfit, he gave his thoughts on it, "Girl, that shirt of yours really makes a statement, but I don't see any handbag or tote bag included with your outfit. I know your shorts have some pockets, but really, can you fit anything in them?"

Trainer White hadn't thought about that, her pockets were big enough to hold her New Nintendo 3DS XL, but that was all she thought to bring with her when she was designing her costume.

Once Bill noticed that the judges had concluded their comments, he decided the time was right to begin wrapping things up and said, "Thank you Team Five, please take your seats at this time."

Team Five walked off stage to join the other trainers who had already modeled their new fashion in front of the judges, and like the other teams, waited for the judges to finish computing their scores.

The judges recorded their scores onto their provided tablets and those scores had been submitted electronically to a central computer every time a new team took the stage. The numbers coming in were being crunched by a panel of at least three math experts so they could be absolutely certain the scores were being recorded properly. After five minutes of checking and rechecking their scores, the three computer experts raised their hands in a _thumbs up_ gesture, indicating they were certain of the winner. A printout was quickly made, sealed in a golden envelope, and passed to one of the producers.

Bill looked over and saw his producer give him a thumbs up, and knew exactly what that meant. He looked at the six trainers and said, "It seems that the scores are in."

The three teams stood up as a supermodel dressed as a sixth generation Pokémon Beauty walked on stage with the golden envelope in her hand and passed it to Bill.

Bill accepted the envelope from the Pokémon Beauty, opened it up, and read the information inside it aloud, "The judge's scores are in, but before I tell you who won I want you all to know that you will be allowed to keep your completed clothes and bring them home with you at the end of this competition."

That information surprised several of the trainers, they figured that Nintendo or The Pokémon Company would be keeping whatever they had worked on. Trainer Blue was especially happy to hear this news, since it meant she could bring the clothes she had worked so hard on back home with her.

After Bill finished seeing the teams congratulate each other he asked them, "Do you want to know who won this challenge now?"

The trainers nodded in unison. Each team was terrified and excited at the same time. They knew that none of them would be eliminated with this challenge, but if any of them were to win, they would not need to compete in the next challenge, and would be guaranteed a spot in the finale. Trainer White especially was holding her breath, because she knew that the prize money she could win from this challenge would guarantee her the wedding of her dreams.

Bill pulled the next card out of the golden envelope and read it aloud, "With a combined score of 165, we have determined that Team One is the winner of this immunity challenge! Congratulations Team One, you have won the right to immunity and you will be guaranteed a spot in the finals."

Trainer Blue turned to Trainer Red and gave him a huge hug. Red was surprised by the gesture at first, but returned the hug and started to cheer as Blue began to laugh. They would be going to the finals, and nothing was going to be standing in their way! Now that they had won, Trainer Blue was very interested in talking to one of the judges about selling her dress design once the challenge was over.

As Team One walked over to celebrate with the judges, Bill continued his instructions to the two remaining teams, "Teams Two and Five, stand forward."

The two teams stood forward as they were called.

Bill looked at them with pride and said, "You've both accomplished so much in the time you've spent on your Pokémon journey, but only one team will be able to go to the finals. We've got one heck of an elimination challenge in store to see which team it is going to be."

The two teams began to hold their breath in anticipation as White turned to Black and asked, "Do you think they're going to let us into the tower?"

It wasn't long until Bill answered their question by saying, "The Lumiose City Gym, which stands right behind me, has been taken over by a criminal group known only as Team Flare. They are holding the Gym's Leader, the ingenious inventor Clemont, as well as his little sister Bonnie against their will on the very top of the Gym. Your objective is enter the Gym, defeat the members of Team Flare hiding inside, and rescue the gym's leader along with his sister."

Gold started to smile as Silver nodded her head and said, "So this is going to be a straight up Pokémon Battle Royale. I'm totally ready for this."

"That is correct Trainer Gold, but this will not be an easy Pokémon Battle Royale. We're in the heart of Lumiose City, and as you know there is no Pokémon Safari here. Because of that there will be no opportunity for any of you to capture any new Pokémon, nor will we be offering any new Pokémon to either team as gifts. For this challenge, you will be completely reliant on the Pokémon you've already captured, traded or bred up to this point."

The teams nodded after Bill finished his instructions, and then Bill turned to face the camera and said, "We know Team One will be going to the finals, but who will be joining them? Find out next week on the conclusion to this thrilling two-part episode of _The Amazing Pokémon Race_!"


	5. Episode 4 Part 2

**Episode 4 Part 2**

 _You are about to read the story of a Pokémon-themed reality game show that could take place in the real world._ _ **The entire story is a work of parody protected under the First Amendment and all events are entirely fictional.**_ _In several cases, the names of famous people or technology involved with Nintendo or The Pokémon Company may be used._

"Welcome back, viewers, to _The Amazing Pokémon Journey_! Thank you for tuning in to watch the conclusion to this incredible two-part event. I'm Bill from Nintendo, your host for the evening. For those of you just joining us, allow me to fill you in on all of the events which brought us to this point. We still have three teams remaining in this challenge. In the previous episode, we held an immunity challenge, where our teams created and modeled custom Pokémon Trainer clothing right on this very spot. Team One, thanks to some creative work by Trainer Blue, won the immunity challenge and guaranteed themselves a spot in the finals. Now, with two teams left and only one more spot left in the finals we're moving immediately into tonight's elimination challenge, and let me say I think that tonight's challenge will be the hardest that we have ever placed on these teams. I hope you're all ready."

As the teams continued their mental preparation, Bill continued to address the home audience as the television cameras gazed all over the brightly lit Eiffel Tower, "Prism Tower, used as the location for the Lumiose City Gym, has been taken over by a criminal group known only as Team Flare. They are holding the Gym's Leader, the ingenious inventor Clemont as well as his little sister Bonnie, against their will at the very top of the Gym. Since Team One has earned immunity they will not be participating in tonight's challenge, and that means that it is up to Team Two and Team Five to complete the challenge and save the Gym from Team Flare."

Trainer Black clenched his fist as he heard Bill set the scene for their challenge. He was ready for whatever the show had in store for them.

Bill stood behind his podium and gave the teams their final instructions, "Each team will take separate elevators into the Gym. Once you reach the first tier of the tower, you will be presented with a clearly marked path that you must follow in order to progress through this challenge. Along the way you will encounter Team Flare Grunts who will challenge you to Pokémon Battles, and you MUST accept every trainer's challenge you are presented with. All battles will remain one on one, and it is up to you to choose which of your team will battle each Team Flare Grunt. Chose wisely, because if a member of Team Flare defeats you, your teammate will have to battle them next, and you will lose precious time replaying the trainer battle from the beginning. You are not allowed to bypass any trainers as you ascend the tower. Team Flare Grunts will attack with high level Pokémon, but you are allowed to use any Pokémon you have previously captured against them, regardless of level."

Trainer Gold nodded his head. He had worked for a long time trying to capture all of the legendary Pokémon he could while playing the Delta Episode on the flight over to Paris. He was as ready as he was ever going to be.

"Secondly, the judges have decided to make this challenge a bit more interesting. For this challenge, you all will be granted access to the _Pokémon Bank_. Now, as I said earlier, there is no Pokémon Safari here in Lumiose City, but there is a Pokémon Center. Nurse Joy is hiding somewhere in the Tower, trying to keep her Center on lock down and out of the hands of Team Flare. If you have other Pokémon from earlier game titles stored in the _Pokémon Bank_ , you may use them for this challenge. We have equipped Prism Tower's Pokémon Center with WiFi, which will provide internet access for your New Nintendo 3DS XL units. If you can reach the Pokémon Center, you all will be granted access to the _Pokémon Bank_ for as long as you remain inside of it. You need to decide for yourselves if you want to use that option or not, but remember, it will cost precious time for you to use the _Pokémon Bank_ , so when you do find Prism Tower's Pokémon Center, spend your time there wisely. You never know if the opposing team will spring ahead of you."

This revelation was a very big deal. Previously, all of the teams had been kept at an equal standing in their game progress. However, since it was clear that most of the remaining teams had already completed the main game, at this point the only game content they hadn't completed were a few minor side quests and some legendary hunting. By allowing the teams to access the _Pokémon Bank_ , they theoretically could allow the trainers to use many of the Pokémon that they've been training throughout their entire lives. This was an enormous wild card, and it meant there was no possible way to predict who would win.

Bill took a deep breath and said these final words, "In the end, only one team will be able to reach the top of the tower to rescue Clemont and Bonnie. Team Two and Team Five, please line up at the starting line and wait for the signal to begin your ascent up the tower. I cannot stress this enough, you _must_ use your best Pokémon if you want any chance of winning this challenge."

The two teams in danger of elimination walked over to the starting line, and waited for Bill to begin his countdown.

Over at Team Five, Trainer Black nodded at Trainer White and said, "Don't worry honey, we got this."

On Team Two's side of the line, Trainer Gold lowered his hood. He wanted to hear Bill shout his countdown as clearly as he could.

As soon as the teams were ready Bill began his countdown, "Five, four, three, two, one…go!"

As Bill shouted the word "go", a horn blasted out and a huge burst of confetti filled up the sky. The two teams participating in the elimination challenge headed straight into their designated elevators as they were lifted to the first tier of the tower.

In Team Two's elevator, Trainer Gold decided to talk strategy with Trainer Silver.

"We're dealing with Team Flare," he began, "That means we're going to be dealing with a lot of fire-type Pokémon. Have you got a good water type?"

Trainer Silver shook her head and said, "No, not on my latest save. I did have a Frokie as my starter Pokémon when I played through _Pokémon Y_ last year, and it's pretty powerful even without the ability to Mega Evolve it, but I don't think I'll be able to use it until we make it to the Pokémon Center. Thankfully, I know for a fact it is in the _Pokémon Bank_ , I transferred it before the competition started just in case it would be needed."

Gold was nervous by this revelation and asked, "Have you got _any_ Pokémon strong against fire-types?"

Trainer Silver nodded and said, "I do have a Lotad loaded up with water attacks, but as a grass-type it would be weak against fire attacks. Hopefully its water attacks are powerful enough to take out my opponent's Pokémon before they have the chance to make their first attack."

The doors opened and the two teams found themselves on opposite ends of the tower's first tier. Their designated routes were clearly marked on the walls and floor so they would not interfere with each other's path.

Within no time, each team encountered their first Team Flare Grunt. Trainer White had chosen a water-type as her starter, and was more than willing to accept the first battle. Since Trainer Gold knew his partner did not have a good water-type of her own, he chose to accept his team's first battle challenge.

The first Team Flare Grunts went down quickly against the seasoned trainers, and both teams continued on their designated path. When Team Two reached the second Team Flare Grunt on their path, Trainer Gold once again offered to battle, concerned that his partner did not have a Pokémon of a type that would be strong against him. However, this Grunt did not attack Gold with a fire-type, it attacked him with a water-type!

Trainer Silver looked at her partner's screen and said, "What the hell? That's not a fire-type. What's going on here?"

The Team Flare Grunt responded, "Team Flare has come prepared with every kind of Pokémon to battle with, you must also be prepared for everything we will have in store for you."

Trainer Silver looked over at Gold and said, "That's it, I'm not going to be useless in this competition. I'm taking the next battle."

Trainer Gold knew better than to argue with Silver when she had her mind made up, so he nodded as he defeated the Team Flare Grunt he was battling.

On the other side of the tower, the members of Team Five both had a pretty diverse, albeit lower leveled, Pokémon team on their side. To be fair to each other, they had decided to alternate players for each battle they encountered so neither of them would get fatigued by a non-stop series of battles.

Back at Team Two's side of the tower, Team Two's competitive nature was getting the best of them. After Trainer Silver insisted she take the next battle, she did, only to find herself battling against a Team Flare Grunt armed with fire-type Pokémon, their worst fear. The rules clearly stated that they were not allowed to change who was battling once a battle began unless that trainer was defeated, so Team Two was literally stuck where they were until Trainer Silver could either win the battle, or lose trying. Without a water-type on her side, either outcome could happen.

As Team Two's battle slowly raged on, Team Five cleared out the final Team Flare Grunt from the first tier of the tower, pulling themselves ahead of Team Two, and taking the lead in the challenge. As they came to the end of their designated path, an elevator opened its door, beckoning them to enter.

As the members of Team Five came up to the elevator, Trainer Black asked his partner how well she remembered Bill's instructions, "What was that line that Bill said? Along the path you will follow a preselected route to an elevator which will take you up to the next tier? Do you think we are supposed to take this?"

Trainer White replied, "Well you've been here before, where do we go?"

Trainer Black responded, "The only way up from this tier is by one of these elevators. We have to take it."

Both members of Team Five entered the elevator, and waited patiently for the elevator's automatic door to close. Once closed, the elevator quickly lifted the members of Team Five up to the second tier of the Eiffel Tower. As the elevator beeped, the doors opened, and the two trainers saw that the Eiffel Tower's second tier had been transformed into a nearly exact replica of a Pokémon Center in the video games. The show's art team really went all out in dressing this area like a real-world Pokémon Center would look. There was even a robotic Chansey standing behind Nurse Joy's desk, right next to an incubation tank.

Nurse Joy looked at the Trainers and said, "Welcome to our little Pokémon Center. I see that you've been able to clear the first tier of the tower, and you are welcome to rest here for as long as you wish until you are able to resume your journey."

Trainer Black pulled out his New Nintendo 3DS XL and opened it up. When the system's screens clicked on, he was pleased to see that his device was registering a clear internet connection. He went into his 3DS system's main menu, and selected the _Pokémon Bank_ application.

Thankfully, _Pokémon Bank_ and its sister program the _Poké Transporter_ were some of the applications that the show's technical experts had foreseen to install on all of the Pokémon Trainers 3DS systems before they were handed out at the start of the show. By choosing to have the programs preinstalled on their systems, it saved Trainer Black some time having to download it off the Nintendo eShop himself.

Once he selected it, the _Pokémon Bank_ booted up in no time, and after giving the 3DS his credentials, it logged into Trainer Black's Nintendo Network account,

When she saw that Trainer Black had no problem logging in, White looked over at Nurse Joy and said, "I thought Nintendo Network accounts were system locked."

Nurse Joy shook her head and said, "We made an exception for this competition."

As Trainer Black started to select the Pokémon he wanted to transfer to his game from his older titles, the members of Team Two walked into the Pokémon Center. Trainer Black was unfazed by their arrival and simply continued with his work.

Trainer Gold looked at Trainer Silver and said, "We're here, let's get your Frokie and go as quickly as we can."

As Trainer Silver opened up her New Nintendo 3DS XL to log into the P _okémon Bank_ , Trainer Black continued plugging away at picking his team. Silver logged in quickly, and once she loaded up her online boxes, she selected her Frokie, brought it into her active game save, and pushed X to save her changes. Within no time the Frokie transferred to her New Nintendo 3DS XL, and Silver exited out of the _Pokémon Bank_.

Trainer Silver closed her New Nintendo 3DS XL and said, "I've got it, we're done here."

Trainer Gold nodded and said, "Okay, let's go."

The members of Team Two walked out of the center in full view of Trainer White and Trainer Black. However, Trainer Black was still not finished with all of his work.

Trainer White motioned to her partner and said, "Black? Shouldn't we get going too?"

Trainer Black shook his head and said, "Hold on, I'm still organizing my team, and now I just got a Celebi."

As Team Two walked out of the Pokemon Center, Trainer Silver turned to her partner and said, "Okay I've got my Frokie, I'm taking this next battle."

Trainer Silver pulled out her New Nintendo 3DS XL and challenged the next Team Flare Grunt they encountered to a battle. As the battle loaded up, The Grunt predictably sent out a powerful fire-type. However, Trainer Silver's Frokie was not in her team's lineup. While she had added it to her game, in her haste to exit the Pokémon Center as soon as possible, she forgot to visit a Pokémon Center in her game and transfer the Frokie out of one of the Pokémon Center's PC Boxes. Once again, Team Two was stuck in a long and difficult battle.

Back at the Pokémon Center, Trainer Black pushed X to save his changes, and his 3DS began to transfer his selected Pokémon from the _Pokémon Bank_ into his game save. However, they were not leaving yet, he started up his copy of _Pokémon Alpha Sapphire_ , loaded his save game, and took his character into the closest in-game Pokémon Center he could find so he could change his lineup. He was not going to make the same mistake Trainer Silver did.

Trainer Silver was finally able to defeat the first Team Flare Grunt on Tier 2, but there were still several battles left for them on the tier. Trainer Gold decided he would take on the next Grunt, so Silver could use the time he spent in battle to organize her team. This was not seen as a violation of the game rules, as Silver no longer needed to access the _Pokémon Bank_.

Back at the Pokémon Center, Trainer Black was finally done with his work. He closed up his New Nintendo 3DS XL, and nodded at Trainer White.

He looked over at Nurse Joy and said, "Thank you so much, stay safe."

Nurse Joy nodded back at Team Five and said, "Thank you, come back any time."

Trainer Gold made quick work of the second Grunt on Tier-2, increasing Team Two's lead over Team Five. Encouraged by Trainer Gold's success, Trainer Silver decided to take the next battle, with her Frokie finally in her team lineup.

Within no time, Team Two came across another Team Flare Grunt, and Trainer Silver pulled out her 3DS to battle him. To the surprise of everybody, the Team Flare Grunt they encountered didn't pull out a fire-type, and instead pulled out a high level psychic-type. The worst part of this was that Trainer Silver had no dark-type on her team, even though Trainer Gold did! This battle was going to take a while.

Over at Team Five, Trainer Black's newest team was an absolute knock-out machine. His Pokémon were so fast their attacks were hitting first almost every time, and he was KOing every Pokémon the Team Flare Grunts were sending after him in just one hit. While Team Two remained stuck battling the third Team Flare Grunt on Tier-2, Team Five quickly made up their lost ground, and quickly defeated the first two Team Flare Grunts they encountered.

Trainer Silver's Frokie was able to finally defeat the third Grunt they encountered, but at around the same time they defeated that Grunt, Team Five overtook their position and was not slowing down in any way. Before Team Two had made it to the fourth Team Flare Grunt, Trainer Black's incredible Pokémon Team had made quick work of the final Grunt in their way on Tier-2.

As Team Two began their battle against their fourth Grunt, the members of Team Five came up to a pretty normal looking elevator located at the center of the tier. Trainer Black had seen this before, and he knew that the elevator went straight up to the tower's observation deck, just below the exposed observation cage. They would be very high up, and Black knew that his partner had a terrible fear of heights.

Trainer Black turned to White and said, "I know this elevator goes straight up to the top of the tower. I know you're afraid of heights but I need you to go with me, I can't do this without you."

Black held out his hand and White gripped it tightly as he escorted her into the elevator. As the doors closed and the elevator started to lift higher and higher into the sky, White could barely keep her own eyes open. Noticing she was starting to become faint, Trainer Black grabbed his partner and held her close, covering her eyes with his hand.

Within no time the elevator reached its destination and the doors opened up to show the tower's glass-enclosed observation deck. The deck was so high into the sky you could see nearly all of Paris from it, and even with the dark night sky surrounding them, the lights of the city burned so brightly they might as well have been looking at it during the day.

Trainer Black slowly removed his hand from Trainer White's eyes and said, "Open your eyes, honey."

Trainer White opened her eyes and saw the beautiful sights before them, "We made it honey, we're at the top!"

Trainer Black, being intimately familiar with the tower's design, shook his head and said, "Not yet, we still have to climb those stairs."

Suddenly a strange voice called out to the members of Team Five, and said, "Not so fast!"

The two trainers looked over to where the voice was coming from. A giant figure, shrouded in darkness, started to descend the spiral staircase linking the glass-enclosed observation area with the very top tier of the tower.

As the figure exited the staircase, he walked into the light, and the members of Team Five got their first good look at their opponent. He was dressed very fashionably, with expensive clothing only a man of incredible wealth could afford. He had bright orange hair, and a great big orange beard. There was no mistaking him now, it was Lysandre, the mysterious leader of Team Flare.

Lysandre looked at the two trainers and chuckled loudly just before he said, "If you two want to reach the top of Prism Tower, you're going to have to defeat _me_!"

Trainer White looked at her partner, still feeling the effects of her vertigo, and said, "Honey, I don't think I can battle him in my condition. I'm feeling really sick."

Black nodded, and pulled out his own New Nintendo 3DS XL and said, "Don't worry honey, he's mine."

Trainer Black loaded up the battle program and selected Rayquaza, one of the highest level Pokémon he had on his team. He had defeated Lysandre in _Pokémon X_ a year earlier, and he was ready to battle him once more if it meant he would get the chance to give Trainer White the wedding she deserved.

The battle wasn't even close. At no time did Trainer Black even take his eyes off his 3DS system's screen, he was focused, driven, and motivated in a way that he had never felt before. Lysandre didn't stand a chance, and he was defeated by Trainer Black in a matter of minutes.

As the battle ended, Lysandre closed his 3DS and said, "I have been defeated, truly I have underestimated you both. I will tell my men to evacuate the tower immediately. Congratulations, what you seek is up those stairs."

Lysandre entered the elevator and left the observation deck. The spiral staircase leading to the top of the tower was now unobstructed. Trainer Black looked at his partner and took her hand. White accepted it, and together they climbed the spiral staircase to find Clemont and Bonnie.

After climbing the stairs together, Black looked around at the beautiful sight of Paris below. At night the city is lit up in a way that simply cannot be described in words, and having reached the top together, the two partners couldn't take their eyes off the beautiful sight.

Trainer Black looked over at his partner, who was unknowingly crushing his hand with all her strength. Trainer White's overwhelming fear of heights had put the romantic moment aside in her mind, and the only thing that she could think of was the competition ahead of them.

White looked over at her partner and asked, "Are we at the top?"

Trainer Black nodded and said, "This is it, this is the top of the Tower."

White looked around, and after not seeing Team Two there, looked over at Clemont and asked, "Are we the first?"

Bonnie looked over at Team Five and nodded, "That's right! You defeated Lysandre, and you're the first to reach the top of the tower. Because of that you are both going to the finals! Congratulations!"

Clemont looked at Team Five, smiled, and said, "Thank you for rescuing me and my sister. However, your battle is not yet over tonight. If you want to earn the Voltage Badge, you're going to have to defeat me. If you can defeat me and earn the badge, you will win a five-thousand dollar bonus prize."

Trainer Black looked at his partner and said, "I got this, honey."

Black stepped forward, pulled out his New Nintendo 3DS XL, and said the single word, "Battle."

Trainer White decided to go and sit with Bonnie as she waited patiently for the battle's outcome. She walked over to the little girl and sat next to her, hoping that the love of her life would be able to win this challenge.

Meanwhile, Team Two was still battling the final member of Team Flare on the second tier. Suddenly, their opponent forfeited their battle and closed his 3DS.

Trainer Gold looked at him with puzzlement and asked, "What's going on?"

The Team Flare Grunt shook his head and said, "I'm very sorry to tell you this but I've just received word that Team Five has made it to the top of Prism Tower first. Because of that, I'm afraid you have been eliminated."

The hope in Team Two's hearts plummeted as they heard those words.

The Grunt held out his hand to the two trainers and said, "I have to escort you two back to the base of the tower. You will be allowed to keep all of the prizes you have earned during this competition, as well as your New Nintendo 3DS XL systems, but your Pokémon Journey has ended."

Meanwhile, Team Five's battle with Clemont was starting to heat up, so Trainer Black decided to pull out his ace in the hole.

Trainer White could see the battle's progress on a television monitor the producers installed at the top of the tower and when she saw Trainer Black's newest Pokémon take the field she was shocked by what she saw, "Black, that's a Mewtwo, where did you capture a Mewtwo?"

Black turned to his fiancée and said, "I captured it in _Pokémon X_ last year, and I've had it in the _Pokémon Bank_ since. I figured now was the perfect time to bring it out. He's a psychic-type and can heal himself, I've got this in the bag."

Trainer Black was correct, Clemont's high-level electric-type Pokémon were no match for his Mewtwo, and Clemont was defeated in no time.

With his final Pokémon defeated, Clemont closed his New Nintendo 3DS XL and said, "For defeating Team Flare and freeing Prism Tower from their control, I hereby award you with a guaranteed spot in the finals, and you both will be continuing in this competition. For defeating me, in my own gym I might add, I hereby award you the Voltage Badge and bequeath a prize of five thousand dollars. Congratulations."

Clemont presented the Voltage Badge to Trainer Black, and pinned it right on his newly designed jacket. Trainer Black nodded at Clemont and shook his hand.

Meanwhile, the recently eliminated Team Two had just been escorted into the interview booth, where they could give their final thoughts on the competition before they headed home.

Trainer Gold was the first to speak his honest thoughts, "This competition has changed me in a way I didn't think was possible. It actually made me see my opposition as people. Whenever I've competed in a major event, I've always focused strictly on winning, and I've never stopped to simply enjoy myself or get to know the people I was competing against before. That's changed."

Trainer Gold turned to Trainer Silver and gave her a hug, "Thank you for being such a great person."

Silver blushed.

After the producers asked the team what was next for them, Silver responded by saying, "What's next for us? We're competing in the Pokémon World Championships in Boston, MA later this year! Look out, world, we're coming!"

By the time Team Two concluded their interview, the members of Team Five finished descending Prism Tower and rejoined Team One at the stage area.

Bill looked pleased as the two remaining teams stood in front of his podium to receive their final instructions, "I see two teams left in front of me and one final challenge to determine who is truly the very best like no one ever was. However, that won't be determined today, and that won't be determined here. For your final challenge, you're going to visit the city that was the inspiration for the setting to _Pokémon Black_ and _Pokémon White_ , we're headed to New York, New York! That's right Teams, we've got one more land to visit, Unova. Pack your bags, Trainers, we have a challenge in store that I can assure you that _none_ of you could possibly be prepared for."

The two remaining teams cheered loudly at Bill's announcement. White turned over to Black and gave him a big kiss. They didn't know if they were going to win, but this challenge had brought out the best in both of them.

 _Stay tuned for next week, where we will be broadcasting our final episode LIVE from New York City, and determine just which team is the very best like no one ever was. I hope you'll watch us then, because I will be joined by a very special co-host! See you next time on The Amazing Pokémon Journey! I'm Bill from Nintendo, take care everyone._


	6. Episode 5

**Episode 5**

 _You are about to read the story of a Pokémon-themed reality game show that could take place in the real world._ _ **The entire story is a work of parody protected under the First Amendment and all events are entirely fictional.**_ _In several cases, the names of famous people or technology involved with Nintendo or The Pokémon Company may be used._

"Welcome back, everyone. I'm Bill from Nintendo and you're watching the final episode of _The Amazing Pokémon Journey_ broadcasting live from Nintendo World Headquarters in New York City, New York. When we came into this competition, we had six teams of twelve trainers trying to be the very best like no one ever was. Over the course of the past four episodes we have whittled those trainers down to just two teams. Today I'm joined by a special guest host, Reggie Fils-Aime, the President of Nintendo of America…and _my_ boss!"

The camera view widened and revealed Reggie "The Regginator" Fils-Aime was standing next to Bill the entire time.

Reggie smiled and said, "Good to be here with you Bill. I've been hearing a lot of great things about this competition and I thought what better time for me to exercise my _Presidential Powers_ and make an appearance on this show than the big finale?"

Bill looked amused by this answer, but he was honestly curious why Reggie was going to co-host the episode with him today. Reggie's appearance had been scheduled in advance, but Bill hadn't been notified who his co-host was going to be until Reggie came on set earlier in the day.

Bill looked at Reggie and said, "So why are _you_ my co-host today, Reggie?"

Reggie responded, "I can't say just yet, but I'm here to reveal the final challenge of this competition and offer a very special prize to both of the teams."

Bill jovially asked, "Wow. Can you tell us what the final challenge is going to be Reggie?"

Reggie responded, "I'm afraid I can't just yet, but rest assured, it is a challenge that neither team has ever seen before, and the good people of this country are going to see it for the first time _ever_ here today. We will all find out in good time."

The crowds could clearly hear the banter of the hosts, and hearing that they were going to be seeing something that the public had never seen before brought them to an enormous cheer.

Bill turned to Reggie and said, "Wow, that crowd is sure fired up! This all sounds great, Reggie. The teams have just arrived in New York City. We told them to look for the giant Pikachu, and there's only one giant Pikachu in NYC right now...ours."

Reggie replied, "That is right. A giant inflatable Pikachu is soaring above our stage and will hopefully bring some luck to the trainers who will be competing underneath it. While we wait for the teams to arrive, could you please inform our viewers and the crowd about the schedule for today's final challenge?"

"No problem, Reggie," Bill looked down at the card he was provided and started to read off of it, "Since only two teams will be competing in the final episode, and because this is a live broadcast we will not be having any immunity challenge today. Instead, once the teams arrive they will be presented with one final challenge….but only Reggie seems to know what that challenge is!"

Reggie smiled and said, "Don't worry Bill, everyone will be finding out soon enough."

Bill responded, "Reggie the suspense is killing me. I'm used to knowing what's in store for these guys."

As Bill and Reggie continued to banter, taxi cabs containing the members of Team One and Team Five arrived at Rockefeller Plaza. Neither team could believe the size of the crowd that had gathered to see them compete in this event. They were so busy competing in the show over the past month they didn't have the chance to watch television, and because of that they had been kept out of the loop over the show's growing popularity. In the long run it wasn't much of a big deal because this crowd was more than willing to let them know they had their support. Several supporters made signs cheering on the teams, and their applause was deafening.

Bill looked over at his monitor and said to Reggie, "I believe the teams have arrived right on time, let's go take the stage."

The remaining two teams were lead to the front entrance of Nintendo World Headquarters by some of the show's stagehands. An enormous stage, surrounded by die-hard Nintendo and _Pokémon_ fans, stood in front of the store. Since the building was created in 2001, Nintendo had hosted some enormous launch events at this location in the past, but what they had scheduled for today was going to dwarf all of those earlier events and cement Nintendo's reputation in the public psyche.

Bill took the stage behind the detailed podium they provided him. As the teams made it to the front of the stage, Reggie Fils-Aime entered, and the four trainers cheered. The contestants knew who Reggie was, but none of them had any idea he would be participating in this episode.

Reggie looked at the teams and said, "I'm so happy and pleased to see you four standing here before me. You have all fought so hard, pushed yourselves beyond the limits of any other Pokémon Trainers, and earned the right to be standing here in front of us, right in the heart of New York City. Today, we have one final challenge for all of you, but before we do, I have a special surprise for both teams."

The four trainers held their collective breath as they waited for Reggie to unveil his surprise.

Reggie continued, "As many of you may know, we at Nintendo have just announced a partnership with Universal Studios, who plan to bring the Nintendo brand to their world-renowned theme parks. You four will be the _first_ to ride those attractions! For making it this far, _both_ teams have been awarded an all-expenses paid vacation to Universal Studios Orlando and Universal Studios Islands of Adventure once the construction of their Nintendo themed rides and attractions are completed! Congratulations to the four of you!"

The trainers cheered. They were told they would be rewarded for their hard work in the competition, but this revelation blew all of their expectations out of the water. All that was going through Trainer Black's mind was that this prize would make for the best honeymoon any newlywed couple could have asked for.

After the cheers subsided, Reggie resumed his speech, "So how are we going to determine which of you are the very best? Bill, I know you've been dying to know the answer to this just as much as they are."

Bill nodded and laughed. Suddenly, the center of the stage opened up and a platform raised itself up from under the stage. However, the teams still had no idea what was being raised up, a giant sheet still covered everything.

Reggie stood next to the raised platform and began to speak, "Up to this point, you four have been challenged in all of the aspects of the _Pokémon_ games that you have played, so here's something you haven't seen before. Trainers, here is your final challenge!"

Reggie pulled back the sheet and revealed what was underneath it, two full-sized _Pokken_ arcade test units. On the arcade unit's screens rolled game footage of Pokémon fighting just like champions would battle in games of _TEKKEN_ , _Soul Caliber_ or _Mortal Kombat_.

The trainers were stunned at what they saw, so Reggie began to explain what was about to happen, "As many of you know, Nintendo has been asked for some time now by our diehard fans to offer players the chance to play as Pokémon that could fight in real-time," then Reggie turned directly at the camera and said, "I'm looking specifically at you, Linkara."

Reggie gave a face to the camera and continued with his instructions, "That is why Nintendo teamed up with the developers of _TEKKEN_ , one of the greatest fighting franchises in the world, to make exactly that, a real-time fighting game featuring Pokémon. We are calling it, _Pokkén_!"

The trainers found themselves cheering along with the crowd at this big announcement. There was no guarantee _Pokkén_ would ever get released in the United States, or if Nintendo would ever consider porting it to home consoles like the Wii U. This event may be the only time the west would ever see this game.

After the cheers subsided, Reggie continued, "Now these are just test units, but you four will officially become the first civilians outside of Japan to play this awesome arcade title before it is available to the rest of the world. Here are your rules: Each trainer will battle an opponent from the opposing team in a single-elimination tournament. If both members of a team get eliminated during the first round of battle, your team will lose and the winning team will be crowned Grand Pokémon Champions. If both teams have one remaining trainer that has not been eliminated after the first round, we will have a sudden death round where the winning trainer from each team will battle each other in one last event to see who is the very best like no one ever was."

The teams were mesmerized by the images on the arcade demo units. They were so excited they were going to actually be playing this game!

Reggie continued his instructions, "You may pick to play as any Pokémon currently selectable in the game, but you will not be allowed to change your Pokémon between rounds, so choose your Pokémon wisely. The team who wins this final challenge will win a $100,000 prize and will be awarded the title of Grand Pokémon Master!"

A supermodel dressed as Officer Jenny walked over to Bill and gave him some instructions to read out, "First up, Trainers Red and Black, please take the stage. You will be battling first."

The two rival trainers walked onto stage and took a position in front of their designated arcade stations. The game units had been set to freeplay, so neither one of them needed to insert any quarters to get their games started up.

As the two trainers navigated the Pokémon selection screen, Bill and Reggie took a seat behind their announcer desk. Each announcer had a dedicated monitor tied directly into the arcade machines, providing both of them a live feed of the fighting tournament.

The two trainers selected their Pokémon, and Bill began to comment on the start of the match, "Round One, Trainer Black has chosen Lucario, and Trainer Red has chosen Machop. Begin!"

Right off the bat, Trainer Black struck the first blow. He was used to playing fighting games like _Mortal Kombat_ and _Killer Instinct_ against Trainer White, and because of that Black was very comfortable with the control layout of the arcade machine. Lucario hopped all around the screen, making it very difficult for Trainer Red's Machop to land an attack. Within no time, Trainer Black won the first round.

At the end of the first round, Reggie commented, "That's the end of the first round, Trainer Black is up by one. If he wins another round, he will be safe, but if Trainer Red can win two rounds back to back, he will eliminate Trainer Black and put his team one step closer to being crowed the Grand Pokémon Champions."

Round Two began, and as soon as it started it felt like a completely different group was fighting. Machop's strength lied in its brute force and devastating fist attacks. Lucario was capable of doing plenty of punching and kicking on its own, but its ranged attacks were dependant on Aura moves, and Trainer Black was simply unable to unleash Lucario's Aura moves consistently. Knowing this, Trainer Red went on the offensive, outmaneuvering Trainer Black's Lucario and attacking it before Trainer Black could hit Red's Machop.

Bill noticed Trainer Red's new strategy immediately upon the beginning of the round and said, "It looks like Trainer Red has found a second wind!"

The contestants had not been given much explanation about the game's controls before they started the challenge, and because of that Trainer Black was outright guessing which commands would unleash Lucario's special attacks.

Reggie noticed Black's frustration at understanding the game's controls and said, "It seems like Trainer Black is having trouble getting down the rhythm of unleashing Lucario's Aura attacks. Machop is just whaling on him."

Lucario went down and Trainer Red won the second round, bringing the match to a draw.

As the trainers prepared for the third and final round, Bill commented, "This is it. This final round will determine which trainer will be safe from elimination."

Trainer Red knew he had a working strategy against Trainer Black, and once the third round started Red employed the exact same tactics he had before. Lucario's quick movements were just no match for Machop's devastating close-quarter attacks. Before his opponent knew what hit him, Trainer Red won the third round.

As Lucario fell, Reggie made the final ruling, "That is it guys, Trainer Red has won, and Team One is one step closer to winning this competition! What a comeback!"

Bill nodded and said, "That's right, Reggie, and now it's time for the next battle. Will the trainers please alternate?"

As the trainers switched positions, Reggie reminded the audience just what was going to be at stake, "Trainer Blue from Team One and Trainer White from Team Five are about to take their positions. I have to remind you all that since one member of Team Five was eliminated in the last challenge, if Trainer White is defeated by Trainer Blue, Team One will win this competition."

As the Teams rotated their participants, Trainer Black shouted at his partner, "Honey, it's all up to you!"

Trainer White nodded at her fiancée and took her position behind her arcade station. She knew what was at stake, and she was going to do her best.

The trainers took their positions behind their arcade stations and the game's Pokémon selection screen quickly booted up. Trainer White searched for a Pokémon she felt would be able to move quickly and still perform devastating attacks so she chose Suiccone. Trainer Blue knew that she would need a well-balanced Pokémon which could deliver ranged attacks against her opponent, so she chose her favorite Pokémon, Pikachu.

Once the trainers locked in their decisions, Bill reported them to the audience, "It looks like Trainer White has chosen Suiccone. Trainer Blue has chosen Pikachu. We're just about ready to get started in what could be the final _Pokkén_ challenge of the day."

The game counted down, and the battle began. Before Trainer White had even become interested in playing games of _Pokémon_ , as a young girl she was an accomplished fighting game player. In fact, she would regularly challenge Trainer Black to games of _Mortal Kombat_ and _Killer Instinct_ when their relationship was just starting up. Trainer Black probably would not admit this on television, but Trainer White would usually beat him at whatever they played.

Trainer Blue on the other hand, had very little experience playing fighting games. While she was able to understand the game's controls it was difficult for her to unleash special attacks, especially Pikachu's thunderbolt. White capitalized on Blue's handicap and pummeled Blue's Pikachu with a barrage of quick attacks.

Bill noticed Blue's issues during the round and commented, "Trainer Blue seems unable to unleash Pikachu's special attacks, and is just being hit repeatedly by Trainer White's Suiccone!"

White's Suiccone was fast, agile and fierce, which made it perfect for Trainer White's fighting style. Trainer Blue was still trying to unleash Pikachu's electric attacks consistently, but with Suiccone able to unleash devastating attacks quickly, her battle was not going well. It wasn't long before Trainer Blue's Pikachu fell in the first round. The crowd went wild.

As the game reset, Reggie commented, "Trainer White has won the first round! Now we are going into round two! If Trainer White wins this round or the next one, we may see a sudden death event here today."

As the round began, Trainer Blue repeatedly let out a flurry of thundershock attacks, but Trainer White simply jumped over them. As soon as White's Suiccone got up to Pikachu, she resumed pummeling it with fast attacks that Trainer Blue's Pikachu was simply unable to avoid. The second _Pokkén_ battle played on American soil would not even go three rounds, Trainer White defeated Trainer Blue in two.

Once the judges confirmed the results of the second round, Bill made the official announcement, "Ladies and gentlemen, I am not surprised to inform you all that this final challenge will be going into Sudden Death!"

Reggie elaborated on this announcement to the audience, "That's right, Bill. Each team has one surviving Trainer who has not been eliminated. By the rules we have established at the beginning of this episode, Trainer Red must battle Trainer White. Whoever wins this battle will win the entire competition for their team."

Trainer Blue left the stage feeling a little guilty about her loss, but as Trainer Red took the stage he gave her a big hug and whispered something the cameras could not hear into her ear. The audience did not know what he said to her, but Blue returned Red's hug and walked offstage with a bit more pride in her step.

Trainer Red logged back into the arcade station and once again selected his Machop. Trainer White reselected her Suiccone, and within no time, the game's battle timer started to count down. Once the countdown concluded, the word _FIGHT_ flashed on both trainers' screens, and the battle began.

Trainer Red immediately sent his Machop after his opponent's Suiccone to try and close the distance between the two of them, but Trainer White's Suiccone could move much faster than Red had anticipated and Suiccone would deliver the first strike.

Trainer White's fingers were a blur on the controls. In fact, her hands were moving so fast, the HD cameras recording the show were not able to see them clearly. When the show's producers saw this, they asked one of their grips to grab one of their reserve cameras which could record in a high framerate, just to get White's hands clearly visible on screen.

White's fast attacks served her well and within no time, she brought her opponent's health bar down to zero and won the first round. The audience held their collective breath as the game reset.

The second round began and Trainer Red, knowing he was one round away from elimination, stepped up his game. As Trainer White's Suiccone continued to dodge and move quickly across the screen, Red unleashed a perfectly timed power attack that made contact with Suiccone before it could hit him. With Suiccone stunned, Trainer Red was finally able to close the distance between his Machop and White's Suiccone, and he could start spamming Machop's more damaging attacks. Unable to recover, Trainer White could only watch as her Suiccone's life bar drained to zero.

Stunned at the turn of events, all Reggie could say as White's Suiccone lay defeated was, "It looks like this match will go to three rounds."

As the timer counted down for the third round to start, Bill reminded the audience just what was at stake tonight, "Ladies and gentlemen, this will be the night's final battle. The person who wins this match will win _The Amazing Pokémon Journey_ for themselves and their teammate. Good luck to both of you."

Trainer Red prepared to enter the round using the exact same strategy he had in the previous one, however, as the round began Trainer White was not responding to his movements in the exact same way he had expected. While Trainer White may have lost the previous round against Trainer Red, she had learned something invaluable from it, the exact timing of Machop's attacks.

White's Suiccone would let Trainer Red's Machop close the distance between the two of them, but would then dodge out of the way just as Machop was about to unleash his attack, almost as if she was anticipating his moves before he made them. Once Machop would unleash its futile move against nothing, White would then come in and pummel Machop with a series of fast combination attacks. Red's head was spinning at this predicament.

As she continued to pummel Trainer Red's Machop, White screamed out, "You play with the spirit of the wind and eventually you'll get blown away. NOTHING is going to stop me from having the wedding of my dreams!"

The crowd erupted in cheers as Machop's health bar drained to zero. The battle was now over, and with it, the competition had reached its conclusion. Once the show's technicians verified the game data on their end, they gave a thumbs up gesture to Bill and Reggie. Reggie turned to Bill and motioned that Bill, who had been the show's host since the very beginning, should be the one to announce the match's winner.

With Reggie's encouragement, Bill announced, "Ladies and gentlemen in one of the greatest battles I think any of you will have witnessed here today, I'm pleased to announce that Trainer White has won this tournament, and because of that, Team Five wins _The Amazing Pokémon Journey_!"

The crowd erupted in cheers at the winning team. Upon seeing Trainer White win the event, the backstage crew told her partner to go back on stage to join her. As Trainer Black took the stage to be with Trainer White, Trainer Red slowly walked off the stage with his head held low. As soon as Red stepped backstage, Trainer Blue was there to grab him and give him a much needed hug. After their hug concluded, several stagehands guided the members of Team One into their interview booth to get their final thoughts about the competition.

After they sat down on the comfortable couches they were provided, Trainer Red was the first member of Team One to speak, "This has been an amazing event that I'm proud to say I was a part of. You can be darn sure that I'll be releasing plenty of v-logs about my experiences at this event on my YouTube Channel within the next few weeks."

After she finished collecting her thoughts, Trainer Blue spoke, "I know we didn't win this final competition, but I'm really happy for what we have already won and what we were able to accomplish while we were here. I'm also really happy to say that my dress designs have been selected for next year's spring collection, and if you liked the dress I designed in the previous episode you should be able to find it on shelves everywhere soon."

Trainer Red added some of his final thoughts, "It's also nice that, even though we didn't win the grand prize, we got to keep all of our winnings from the previous episodes. I can't wait to replay all my Nintendo games on my New Nintendo 3DS XL and you can be darn sure I'll be using some of the eShop money we won to buy a lot of new digital games for the system, as well as renew my subscription to the _Pokémon Bank_."

Off screen, the show's producers asked Trainer Red what he whispered into Trainer Blue's ear before the final round.

Trainer Red replied, "What did I say to her? Just that she did her best and I was proud to call her my partner."

After Team One concluded their interview, Team Five was put up on stage next to Reggie, Bill, and the dozens of supermodels Nintendo had hired to present the winning team their grand prize.

With a microphone in his hand, Reggie announced to Team Five what they won, "Team Five, for winning _The Amazing Pokémon Journey_ , you have not only won all of the prizes you have earned over the course of this competition, as well as the all expenses paid vacation to Universal Resorts, you have won a grand prize of one hundred-thousand dollars!"

Confetti fell as the crowd cheered. A supermodel walked onto stage with an enormous check emblazoned with Pikachu's face on it. Trainer White accepted the check along with a bouquet of flowers presented just for her. They were roses, her favorite.

After Trainer White accepted her flowers, Reggie continued with their prize announcements, "I know, money is great, and I'm sure it will be able to give you both the wedding you've always wished for. By the way, if you want to have a Pokémon-themed wedding just tell us and we'll be more than happy to set you up with all of the centerpieces and decorations you could ever want."

Trainer Black nodded and said, "Thank you, Reggie."

Reggie added, "You're both welcome, but we're not done yet. We have something special and unique for you that I don't think any of you were expecting! Bill, wheel it in!"

Bill pushed a very tall object covered in a white sheet onto the stage.

Reggie took a corner of the sheet in his hand and said, "Here's your final prize, let's see what is under this sheet!"

Reggie pulled the sheet off the object and revealed what was under it to everyone. A gasp fell over the audience, as they had just won one of the most famous collectibles in the history of _Pokémon_ , a working _Pokémon Snap_ print machine.

As the members of Team Five lay in shock at what they were seeing, Reggie said, "That's right guys, this is an actual _Pokémon Snap_ printer, and it works too. We've had these in storage for the past fifteen years collecting dust, but I had some of our lab technicians refurbish it. With this, you can print out all of the photographs you want from _Pokémon Snap_ and _Pokémon Stadium_ on the Nintendo 64, just as well as you could when these units were installed at every Blockbuster Video in the country. Or if you'd prefer, it would make for one hell of a conversation piece in your gaming room."

Trainer Black grabbed Trainer White and put his arm around her. The two were not yet living together, but it was wonderful that Nintendo was willing to give them the first piece of what would become their new home.

As Trainer Black and Trainer White held each other, Bill announced one last surprise for them, "Wait guys, don't cry yet, we still have to give you your award. We have one more special guest here today and he insisted that he give you guys your award personally. Ladies and gentlemen, to present the award to the winning team of _The Amazing Pokémon Journey_ , I present to you the creator of _Pokémon_ and the reason we are all here today, Satoshi Tajeri!"

The crowd of spectators gathered at Nintendo World screamed and cheered so loudly you could feel the vibrations shake the concrete as Mr. Tajeri walked onto the stage.

The words, "We're not worthy!" rang through the crowd as Mr. Tajeri prepared to speak.

Bill handed the creator of _Pokémon_ a microphone and stepped back as he spoke, "For your strength, dedication and perseverance, I am happy to grant you the title of Grand Pokémon Master. Congratulations, you _are_ the very best like no one ever was."

Fireworks shot out from behind the stage and lit up the beautiful New York skyline. White laid her head on Black's shoulder as they looked up at the dazzling display.

As the fireworks continued to ring out, Trainer Black's voice could be overheard as the fireworks started to fade away from the screen, "Do you ever feel like you're in a dream? Well, I'm just sitting here, next to the most wonderful girl in the world, waiting to wake up."

The screen completed its gentle fade away from the fireworks display to an interview room where the winning team was sitting very closely together with their arms wrapped around each other.

Trainer White punched her partner gently in the arm and said, "Oh shush, you. This isn't a dream, and I'm still going to be here when you wake up. Now, when are we going to set a date?"

The camera faded as Trainer Black gave a very long pause to deliver his answer.

 _What a beautiful ending to a beautiful competition. I'm Bill from Nintendo, speaking on behalf of Reggie Fils-Aime and Satoshi Tajeri. Just remember to always try to be the very best like no one ever was, and don't let any rival tell you otherwise. Goodnight, everybody!_


	7. The Making of The Amazing Pokemon Race

**The Making of The Amazing Pokémon Race**

 _You are about to read the story of a Pokémon-themed reality game show that could take place in the real world._ _ **The entire story is a work of parody protected under the First Amendment and all events are entirely fictional.**_ _In several cases, the names of famous people or technology involved with Nintendo or The Pokémon Company may be used._

Off in a distant corner of the internet, a young man who chose to call himself "Maniac" typed furiously at his keyboard. He had been spent several weeks of his life writing an extremely complex story based on some ideas he had been held on to for the past twenty years. It was now a month after he published that story and many people online had been asking him to write more. So he sat at his desk and decided to explain to everyone what inspired him to write this lengthy story, and what the future held for it. He set up a camera in front of him and switched it on.

Maniac looked up at the camera and began, "Hi everybody, my name is Maniac, I'm the creator, writer and producer for _The Amazing Pokémon Race_ , the story that you all have been reading for the past several weeks. Since wrapping up the series a few weeks ago, I've been getting requests nonstop from all over the web asking what my plans were for the future of this series. Some people have wondered if I was planning to write a brand new season of the show or if more episodes were going to be produced for this season. Some people have asked me what was my inspiration for the series, or who inspired the characters in it. Well, those are pretty loaded questions. Given that this little story has become one of my most popular on this website, I thought new episodes were in order, and so here we are, this episode will be a special look behind the scenes at _The Making of The Amazing Pokémon Race_."

"I'm sure many of you want to know my background with reality shows, and I'm afraid to tell you that in all honesty with _very_ few exceptions I was never a fan of this genre. While I was in high school at the time reality shows started broadcasting on television, I never had any interest in watching _any_ of them at first. However, in 2001 several producers tried to resurrect a game show where contestants had to travel across the United States in cars. During the events of the drive, the contestants would have to complete challenges set up by the show's producers in order for them to progress on to the next leg of their journey. While the show didn't do well in the ratings to the point where it never received a second season, I think it was actually the only reality show I ever enjoyed."

"At the same time I had also been watching the first two seasons of _Pokémon: The Animated Series_ on the WB network. I hadn't been lucky enough to play the original games before I watched the animated series, but I was impressed by the show's premise and found myself watching it every afternoon. I thought the concept behind _Pokémon_ was really compelling, but what made it truly great was the lore that was being built around the _Pokémon_ franchise. It featured a fantastical world that had a lot of similarities to ours, and I thought it was a shame that no one had ever attempted to adapt it as a game show."

"That's a little bit on my background for _Pokémon_ and reality TV but that wasn't the spark that inspired me to write this story. A few months ago, I was watching television with my girlfriend and her family. They have a tradition where they like to watch various reality shows together on a given night, and occasionally I have joined them. One show they watched in particular focused on several teams who would have to literally travel across the world solving challenges created by the show's producers. I thought it was a decent show, but I thought I could do a better job with it. Taking some inspiration from my background as a video game journalist, I thought that if Nintendo or The Pokémon Company would try something like that, and create a reality show where _Pokémon_ superfans could do the same thing, only with challenges that had a _Pokémon_ focus, they could essentially create the greatest show in the history of television."

"Once the idea came into my head, the episodes started writing themselves. I knew that _Pokémon's_ developers over at Game Freak had intentionally modeled many of the regions found in the games after real-world locations. Knowing they were used for game inspiration, New York City and Paris immediately became locations I wanted to have as a venue for episodes. Once I decided on all the locations, I started creating challenges. Since I've personally visited locations like Nintendo World Headquarters and the Eiffel Tower, they became the perfect set pieces for the challenges I had in mind. Every reality show I've seen would usually feature two challenges per episode, an immunity challenge at the beginning which would keep a player or team safe from being kicked off of the show for that week, and an elimination challenge where the team who failed would be sent home. The inspiration for at least ninety percent of the game's challenges came from some special activities you could do in the games such as taking pictures or answering trivia, but one or two challenges were inspired by events I saw in an actual reality show. I'm sure many of you read the immunity challenge in Episode 3 and had flashbacks to playing _Pokémon Snap_ on your Nintendo 64 consoles back in the early 2000s. That was intentional. The Pokémon Fashion Show in Episode 4 Part 1 was partially inspired by the Generation III contests, but its structure was based heavily on two specific reality shows my girlfriend has made me watch with her, one of which had John Waters appear as a guest judge. I wanted to showcase some of the newer titles in the game series, not just because they were fresh in my memory, but also because I figured that if I promoted some of the newest titles, the people at Nintendo would be less inclined to be offended by my stories if they ever came across them."

"So I had the inspiration for a story and a framework for how I wanted to tell that story, but I still needed to create characters. I watched a bunch of reality-shows and determined that it would make the best sense to have six teams of two trainers each. That meant I had to create twelve total contestants. Since I wasn't going to use any of _Pokémon's_ characters (since they don't exist in the real-world) I knew that I had to create each trainer myself entirely from scratch. For diversity's sake and for the fact I felt it would make for the best inter-character interaction I decided to make each team co-ed. Then I decided to name each character after one of the _Pokémon_ titles just to pay my respects to these great games. Since it was common for the game's iconic trainers to be named after their edition of the game, I figured it was fair to name each trainer after the first two games from each generation. It wasn't perfect, but it worked pretty well."

Maniac then shrugged and said, "Okay, even I have to admit my naming structure didn't work every time. For your enjoyment, here are some examples where it _didn't_ work. I know in the American version of _Pokémon_ , Trainer Blue was the name of the male rival, but that was only because the US never got the original versions of _Pokémon_ that were released in Japan, which were called _Pokémon Red_ and _Pokémon Green_. Japan would eventually get a _Pokémon Blue_ , which had improved graphics, but it was released in Japan only. The US versions of the first generation games used _Pokémon Blue's_ graphics assets, but had the game play data from Red and Green. Why tell you all that? Because that meant that in the original Japanese Gen I titles, the rival was named Trainer Green, _not_ Trainer Blue. Early concept art did in fact feature the option for a female Pokémon trainer in the Gen I games, and she bared a strong resemblance to the female trainer option in the Gen I remakes, but she was not included in the original games. However, before she would appear in _Pokémon FireRed_ and _Pokémon LeafGreen_ , the character we now refer to as Green made several appearances in the original Japanese version of the _Pokémon Adventures_ manga as Trainer Blue, signifying to me that she was originally meant to bear that color name. Even though she would later be referred to as Trainer Green when the manga was translated for an English speaking audience, I decided to make the female team member of Team One Trainer Blue as a way to honor Trainer Blue's creators. For Team Two, I unfortunately can't hide behind that excuse, because I know Silver was clearly the male rival in the Gen II games, and a female playable trainer wasn't added until _Pokémon Crystal_ was released, making Crystal the true name of the female trainer of Gen II. So, why did I make Trainer Silver the female member of Team Two? Well, there were a lot of reasons I wanted to keep Gold as the male trainer of the team, particularly because I had seen a lot of males dress up as the Gen II trainer in the past few conventions I attended. For Team Three, I thought it would work better to make the male trainer Ruby as opposed to Sapphire because while I know it is more common for Ruby to be a female's name, I have heard of a few cases where men happened to be named Ruby, but _no_ cases in the US of a man named Sapphire. To cement this issue down, I said that Trainer Ruby was named because his birthstone happened to be the ruby, so I guess he was born in July. Um…can we just call all of this a use of poetic license?"

"The hardest team to adapt to this naming system was Team Four, because I could not come up with an excuse to name a male trainer either Diamond or Pearl, and I wasn't going to reuse the birthstone excuse I used for Team Three. Because of that I decided to make Team Four the lone all-female team. The fact that they were eliminated first really had little to do with the fact they were an all-girl team and more to do with the fact I had no idea what to do with them for the rest of the series."

"Now that I had the teams written out, and names for each team member decided on, I needed to give each trainer a distinct personality. Actually, that wasn't as difficult as you might have thought. I watch a lot of videos about _Pokémon_ history and lore online, and so I based the characters for Team One on two of my favorite YouTube personalities. Likewise, the members from Team Three were also based on YouTube personalities, but in this case they were based on two specific people who created Pokémon parody videos. Fortunately, I had actually met them in person a few times over the years at various conventions and events, so I had a bit more to go on than just a blank slate and a video screen. The members of Team Four were based on identical twin sisters I used to be friends with about a decade ago. They were really into Nintendo, and we used to play games on GameCube together, so I thought they were perfect for the members of Team Four."

"Team Six and Team Two were pretty original characters, because I felt that I needed to address two major components of Pokémon fandom that I felt the other teams were not addressing, and that was the wide age diversity of Pokémon fans, and the huge competitive aspects of real-world Pokémon tournaments. I chose to make Team Six the youngest team, since _Pokémon X_ and _Pokémon Y_ were the newest titles to be released. They're not based on anyone I know personally, but I used to be ten, so I based a lot of them on what I remembered from when I was that age. Another reason I chose to make them ten was to bring them in line with Ash Ketchum's enduring age on the _Pokémon_ animated series. As for Team Two, I thought it would be interesting to pair together two very competitive trainers, and I thought they would be the most exciting to write because you would never know just how they would try to one up each other. While they didn't win the competition, I think that by the end of their story they ended up with the most personal growth out of all the teams."

"Finally we come down to Team Five, who were our winners this season. Like Team One and Team Three, Team Five was inspired by a YouTube video, in this case a video of a cute couple who dressed as Pokémon trainers and got engaged. However, unlike the other teams, that video just became a small aspect of their personalities. Eventually, aspects from my own personality and the personality of those closest to me started to go into their characters, and because of that I think they are probably the most fleshed out characters in the entire series, but I'll let you be the judge of that."

Maniac took a deep breath after finishing that lengthy explanation and continued, "So now that I had contestants for my show, I needed hosts. Nintendo likes to periodically release videos online called _Nintendo Direct_ , where important people from the company showcase upcoming titles. I was a huge fan the segments Nintendo would feature from the Treehouse, where a man named Bill Trinen would preview some really awesome games for the 3DS and Wii U. Since he appeared to be so comfortable in front of the camera, I thought that if Nintendo were to make a show for an American audience, he would make for the perfect host. My original intention was simply to keep Bill as the lone host throughout all of the episodes, but that changed as I started to work on the fifth and final episode. Since only two teams were left by that point, and there was only going to be one challenge for them to complete with very little sightseeing going on, I thought the final episode was going to need a bit more substance before it was worthy of being published. At around this time, Nintendo had just held the Nintendo World Championship 2015, an incredible show which served as a great love letter to their long-time fans. During that show, Reggie Fils-Amie, the President of Nintendo of America, had a personal grudge match over a game of _Super Smash Bros_. I remembered Reggie hosted plenty of Nintendo events, and appeared in a lot of Nintendo videos, so I had a good understanding of his professional persona. I also thought that since the final challenge was going to be over a fighting game, it would be perfect to have _two_ hosts comment on the main event, so I added Reggie as the host for the final episode. I'm pretty happy with this decision, since the banter between Reggie and Bill turned out better than I could have hoped for."

"However, there was one man that I knew I could not forget in this story, and I was going to wait until the very end before I was going to bring him out. Pokémon's creator is a man named Satoshi Tajeri, and I thought out of everyone who worked for Nintendo or The Pokémon Company, he would have to be the man who presented the final award, and declare the winning team the best like no one ever was."

"I have no idea if anyone I've based these characters on has read this story, so I really can't comment on how they feel about being in it. I want everyone to know that if I did use you in this story, it was only because I'm a true fan of your work, and wish you would consider your appearance here the sincerest form of flattery."

"Now that we've talked about all the characters, let's talk a little about the game's setting. I always wanted the series to take place in the real-world, not the Pokémon world. While I've always been a huge fan of Pokémon's lore, and I was an enormous devotee to the first few seasons of the animated series, I felt like if I wanted to tell a story about a reality show, it had to be real, and that meant I was limited by reality. While some people would consider that too much of a constriction, I actually appreciated it. It made setting up the framework of each episode that much easier, and I didn't have to worry about violating any laws of Pokémon's lore, I just had to present the challenges I envisioned in as believable a way as I possibly could. That's why I clearly wrote the Pokémon during the _Pokémon Snap_ challenge were full sized animatronics, I described all the models cosplaying as recognizable characters as supermodels in costume instead of the characters they were portraying, and got into technical specifics about how things like the Safari Zone worked in the story. In the end I really don't think any of my ideas had to be cut out or trimmed down due to reality's limitations. I've seen a lot of travelogues which filmed in the South Pacific, and I was struck by how beautiful the islands were from the ocean, so I decided to dedicate Episode 3 to that location and had challenges held in sea and on land. In fact, Episode 4, the longest and most complicated episode of the entire series, had to be greatly expanded to keep my plans for the episode grounded. I've actually been to the real Eiffel Tower and walked up to the very top of it. After I played _Pokémon X_ this summer, I knew I wanted to do something with Prism Tower, the location of the Lumiose City Gym, so I envisioned a challenge where the trainers would have to scale the Eiffel Tower. It worked out better than I could have hoped."

"Since we're talking about real-world inspiration already, let's talk a little bit about the inspiration behind the series finale episode. I thought that the best way to present a finale for the show was to take a cue from _The Wizard_ and give the players something none of them had ever played before. That would have guaranteed an even playing field between the last two teams, and given the spectators a great reason to show up to cheer on the players, and I knew exactly what game I wanted them to play. Earlier in the year, Nintendo had announced they were planning to release _Pokkén_ , a fighting game featuring _Pokémon_ characters, into Japanese arcades but very little information other than some brief preview videos had been released about the game at the time. Due to its heavy anticipation, I thought that having a _Pokkén_ tournament would be perfect for a finale. In fact, right now I'm sure many of you are probably drawing parallels to this year's Nintendo World Championships where unreleased titles were played in the competition, and you'd be right. The problem was time it seemed was not on my side. While nothing about the game was shown at this year's E3, information about the game started to be released as I was writing new episodes of the series. In fact, by the time I published the last episode, _Pokkén_ had gotten an official release in Japanese arcades, something that I was not expecting to happen as soon as it did. After I heard about the arcade launch and the musings by a major chain to bring the game to the West, I realized I needed to publish episode five as soon as I could. Turns out, I was right to do that because not long after the final episode was published, Nintendo announced _Pokkén_ is going to be ported internationally for the Wii U platform in 2016. I have no idea what made me decide to give the final winners a _Pokémon Snap_ printer, but I challenge anyone to tell me if they can think of a promotion that happened fifteen years ago that people remember as well as they remember Nintendo's partnership with Blockbuster Video. Every _Pokémon_ fan, including me, wants one of those machines so I figured it would make for a great surprise to the winning team."

"Next, you're probably wondering if there was anything that I had to cut from the series. Well, most of my plans ended up in the story, and very little was omitted with one or two minor exceptions. Originally, when I was outlining the early portion of the first few episodes, I intended to spend several episodes with the trainers traveling around Japan. In fact, the Pokémon Center that served as the finish line for the second episode's elimination challenge was originally only going to be the first of many Pokémon Centers that the teams would have had to travel through. That's right, I was going to have the teams travel all across the Japanese countryside to try to see who would be the first to visit every single Pokémon Center in the country. That eventually became too monumental a task to fully plan out, and so I scaled the challenge back so the teams would only have to reach one specific Pokémon Center from a common start point. If anyone is really upset about the loss of what could have been an incredible Japan-focused episode, just be aware that if I had gone that route, it would have prevented me from bringing the teams out of Japan _for the whole season_. I decided instead to cut down on the scope of the first challenge and make the show an international affair. I also wanted to have a rollerblading race through a major city as an immunity challenge, but that turned out to be too complex to write. It may end up being used in a later story."

"I also was not going to originally eliminate any of the teams from the show. I figured since I worked really hard fleshing out each character's back-story and possibilities for the dynamic they would have with each other were so good I wanted to keep them all around throughout the whole contest. The original plan was that teams would still be eliminated each episode, but they wouldn't go home, and they would still participate in all of the later challenges even though they were no longer in contention for the grand prize. I thought that towards the end of the show, I could have some kind of wild card event where a team would return to contention depending on their performance throughout the series. I quickly realized that if I kept every trainer around for every single episode, it would have two major problems. The first was that I would have to keep track of more characters through each event, making for longer stories which I could not guarantee would release on time. The second issue had more to do with pacing. I thought I was straining my readers' attention spans to the max just having to repeat the events of more than one team having to complete the exact same task. While I was able to have the teams be able to tackle challenges in a diverse manner early on, I knew I wanted to have more linear challenges for the later events, and if I had kept all six of the teams active during those challenges it would have meant for a lot of boring repetition. Because of all of those issues I decided to just send eliminated teams home, but to keep readers from being too sad if a team they liked left early I gave everyone who left decent parting gifts."

Knowing he had reached the end of his back-story about the season, Maniac sat up straight in his chair to relate his plans for the future, "A lot of you have been asking what my plans are for the show's next season. Well…that's a very loaded question. The truth is I think it's far too soon for me to talk about this. I felt as though this series reached its logical conclusion at the end of the previous episode, but when you're dealing with reality shows you know there are always special episodes that can get added if the demand is high enough. While I would like to write a second season for this series, I think it would be more fitting to hold off on that for a while until Nintendo releases more Pokémon games. Until then, you guys can look forward to the final episode of this season, which will bring back _all_ of the contestants in a special reunion. Stay tuned for that!"

"Finally, I'd like to personally thank all of you for reading, I don't think I would have been able to get as far as I have without your comments and encouragement. Please continue to post your thoughts about this story, and if you really want me to write a second series, just say so. Goodnight everyone, I'll see you next time."

After he finished, Maniac turned his camera off, shut the lights off in his room, and went to bed.

 **The End**


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